


All the Accomplices

by Slickster46



Series: All the Accomplices [1]
Category: Persona 4, shin megami tensei: persona 4
Genre: Accomplice Ending (Persona 4), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Based on a Tumblr Post, Gen, My First Work in This Fandom, Original Character(s), they're all in this together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2018-04-23 08:31:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4870190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slickster46/pseuds/Slickster46
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having just saved Naoto and Adachi from their dungeons, the investigation team recruits Adachi and his persona as their newest member and hi-jinks and drama ensue, but little do they know while they think they've dragged him into their world, truth is they are now all caught up in his game...</p>
<p>Based on this short AU drable I wrote for Adachi AUs on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Adachi Joined the- Wait... He Hasn't!?

Cold air chilled the investigation team as they sat huddled together outside. They were reviewing their notes with the utmost intensity. The expressions on their faces were grave and joyless.Despite being in the very crowded Junes, the world around them as they stared at the scribbles on their papers, was silent.

That was until Yosuke broke their perceived quietness.

“This just doesn’t make any since to me!” He exclaimed. Everyone pulled their tired eyes away from their notes to look at him. 

“Anyway I look at this nothing adds up. It’s like we’re missing something important.”

“He’s right. There’s a break in my notes before it moves on to the next part. But, I thought I was sure to write down everything.” Chie added.

“There seems to be a gap in my notes as well.” Yukiko said. “How odd…”

“Oh man! If Yukiko doesn’t have it in her notes, then we’re screwed!” Yosuke said defeated. 

“Not that there was that much hope for us to begin with…” He laid his head down on the cold metal of the table, sulking.

“My, you’re giving up rather easily, Yosuke. I know this is hard but I think you’re forgetting how important this is.” Naoto said barely looking away from her notes. She slowly flipped through the pages once more.

“ If we fail…” she started.

“I know, I know! There’ll be serious trouble if we can’t get this down. But...”

“I think we all need to take a break for a moment.” Yu spoke up.

“We’ve been looking over our notes for hours. We might be starting to get a little sloppy. Maybe we need to take a step back.”

“You’re probably right, sempai. We’ve been going at this for a while. I didn’t even realize how long its been.” Naoto said. She shut her note book and placed it on the table, then let out a sigh.

“A break might be exactly what we need right now.”

Chie shut her notes as well and began to lift her arms in a stretch.

“Oh man, I could die for something to eat right about now!” she said excitedly.

“I second that! All this reading can really work up a guy’s appetite. Let’s grab some food!” Yosuke said. He tossed his notes to the ground and they skidded a few feet from the table.

“Did someone say food!?” Teddy was running across the food court caring bags and Styrofoam boxes.

“Oh hey man, is your shift over!?” Yosuke called out. Teddy made it to their table and sat the bags down. Delicious scents wafted from them.

“Yep! It ended a while ago actually . But when I came over to check on you guys, you were beary focused on studying. So I decided to get us all lunch and come back later.”

“That’s so thoughtful of you Teddy!” Yukkiko said peaking inside one of the plastic bags. 

“Yeah thanks a lot!” Chie eagerly pulled a plastic box from a bag. She could easily pinpoint which one head steak in them. The blonde bear began to blush.

“Aw, it was nothing.” He said scratching head. 

“Well, you have great timing. We were just about to take a break. Come and join us for lunch.” Yu said.

“Thanks sensei!” Teddy grabbed a chair and pulled up to the table.

“Alright! Let’s dig in!” Chie said. Everyone grabbed boxes from the bags. They’d open them and shuffle them around until everyone got exactly what they wanted. The food was still quite warm when they got it, and it warmed their bodies as well. It had been a while since any of them had anything to eat that day and one could tell by the way they were starting to scarf down their food. The whole team was so engrossed in eating that they didn’t notice the young detective silently watching.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the ‘engorge themselves team’.” He finally spoke.

Everyone came to a screeching stop. Yosuke began to choke on a swallow of noodles in surprise. They all looked up to see the suit clad detective sitting across from them at another table not that far off. His dark hair messy as usual, light eyes keenly focused, and a smirk spreading across his face.

“T-That’s ‘investigation team’ to you!” Yosuke sputtered through coughs. “ You should really know that considering you’re a member of it now.”

“Now, did I ever officially say I was joining you kids? I’m still having a hard time adjusting to all this ‘persona’ business. Jumping into tvs, saving people, you understand that’s a lot to process for me!” he said with a nervous tremble in his voice.

“I thought he’d be more eager to join us, being one of the lead cops on the case and all.” Teddy whispered to Yu.

“And even if I agreed to join, you guys don’t think of me of a team member. You’re having one of your little babysitters’ club meeting without me. I just so happened to be passing through when I saw you all here stuffing your faces.”

“We’re not even going over the case right now.” Chie said rolling her eyes. “And if you’d paid any attention you’d see that we’re not all here without you. Rise and Kanji aren’t here either.”

“We’re actually studying for midterms right, now.” Naoto clarified. “And you caught us in the middle of a lunch break. Would, you like to join us, Detective Adachi?”

He sighed standing up from his chair.

“It’s not that easy you know. I’m an adult, a professional. It would be weird if everyone saw me hanging around with a bunch of teenagers. People might start thinking I’m some sort of creep.”

“Good then everyone will know, not just us.” Chie mumbled under her breath. The fight against Adachi’s shadow had been very revealing about the other parts of detective personality. In particular the way he seemed to view women.

“Well, Adachi-san we’re not going to force you to join us, but I promise the only way you’ll ever find the killer is by investigating the TV world. And since it’s so hostile inside, anytime you spend there you’re going to end up using your persona and fighting shadows. It wouldn’t be bad to have a team back you up.” Yu explained.

“I’ll think about it, some more. I can still hardly believe that it all really exitis out there or that I was almost murdered by a clone of myself.”  
A notable shiver went through his body at the thought. It had been the closest the team had ever come to loosing anyone. It took days to find him in that world, and when they did his shadow was just about to finish him off. 

“Wait, did you kids say you studying for midterms?” 

“Yep, well we’re trying to anyway. Not that there’s much hope.” Yosuke whined. 

“In, Junes? This place is lousy with noise and distractions. You must not be taking you’re studying all that seriously huh? What a shame.” He half-heartedly chastised. 

“When I was a kid in school, I knew someone who didn’t take his studying seriously. He ended up getting such a low score on his midterms, colleges wouldn’t even consider him for entrance exams. He ended up getting stuck in some low paying dead end job after graduation.” He shook his head.

“Wow, was that story really about you, Adachi-san?” Teddy asked.

“What!?” he said offended.

“Hell no! I had the best grades in my class! Top marks from all my teachers. I went to the best college in the country; they were dying to have me there.” He boasted.

“All that, and you became a detective out in the boonies?” Yosuke said. Adachi narrowed his eyes at the teenager, it disappeared with a nonchalant eye roll.

“Ugh, I don’t to take this from you. You can’t even copy your notes down correctly.” Adachi said.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Yosuke asked.

“Well aren’t these your notes on the ground? Just glancing at ‘em I can see you managed to leave out an entire formula. It’s the only way you’ll be able to solve any of these problems.”

“What?” Yosuke grabbed his notes off the ground. “You can tell that just by looking?” Everyone began to pull their notes back out. 

“Well, do you know what the formula is then? If you do, please write it down for us.” Yukiko requested. She passed him a pen and paper which he hesitantly accepted.

“Hm, it’s been a while, but… I think it goes something like this… and then you just plug those in… here?” He said scribbling down the equation. He passed the paper back to Yukiko. 

“But it’s been forever since I’ve been in a math class, so you should probably take this with a grain of salt.” He shrugged. The team huddled around the paper and copied the equation into their notes. 

“Hey! It actually works! I got the right answer!” Chie said excitedly.

“Thank you Adachi-san. You’re a big help.” Yukiko said with a warm smile. 

“Huh? Oh it wasn’t that big a deal. Next time you kids should copy your notes down more carefully .”

“We did!” Chie insisted.

“But after King Moron died, there was a lot of confusion about where to pick up our studies. Plus we were kinda occupied trying to figure out who killed him.” She added. It had been a difficult time. Perhaps they weren’t as focused on school as they should have been.

“Yeah, even in death king moron manages to screw us over. “ Yosuke sighed.

“Hey, Adachi-san, can we ask you a favor?” Yu asked.

“Oh, boy. Are you guys going to ask me to be your tutor now?”

“Well actually, I was wondering if we could all study at your place? Junes is really noisy, but the only reason we’re here is because the upper classmen have hogged all the libraries and study halls, and all of our houses are too cramped or distracting. So Junes is all we got.”

“Yeah, and since you know this stuff so well, you can help us study.” Yosuke said. Adachi gave an unsure look.

“Come on! We saved you from being murdered, the least you can do is save us from a bad grade.” He added.

“Well when you put it like that, I do owe you kids for not letting me get killed.” He sighed.

“…Fine you can all study at my place for a bit. But if you guys make a mess I’m kicking you out.” He stood up from the table and waited for the teenagers to do the same.

“You go on ahead, we’re gonna finish eating. We’ll be there is a sec!” Yu said.

“Fine you all finish stuffing your faces, ‘engorge yourself’ team. I’ll be waiting at home.” He turned and walked away.

“That’s investigation team!” Yosuke yelled after him. Adachi just waved him off.

“Wow. I actually can’t believe he agreed to that.” Naoto said still watching the detective leave.

“Yeah, I’m a bit surprised myself.” Yu said.

“We won’t be over there just to study though. We’re going to try and leave as positive as an impression on him as possible, so he’ll feel more comfortable joining the team.” Yu explained.

“Ah so that’s your game.” Naoto nodded with understanding. 

“Sensei always has a plan for everything!” Teddy said proudly.

“Well be sure to tell me later how it went. I’m going to have to call it a day on studying with you guys.” Naoto said.

“Me too, actually.” Yukiko added. “I have to get to work at the inn after this.” 

“Aw, really? Well I guess that just leaves the three of us huh?” Chie sighed.

“Hey, what about me!?” Teddy asked.

“Dude, you don’t have anything to study.” Yosuke said annoyed.

“Oh right! I forgot about that.” He said with a blush.


	2. Study Date to Decide their Fates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu, Chie and Yosuke head over to Adachi's house to study and to make another run at the detective to join their team. They finally get an answer but is this the out come they were looking for?

The gang finished their lunch and started to go their separate ways from Junes. Teddy volunteered himself to walk Naoto and Yukiko back to their destinations “to make sure they were safe.” While Yu, Yosuke, and Chie made their way to Adachi’s house.

“So, how do you wanna play this bro?” Yosuke asked walking beside Yu. 

“I read somewhere if you ask someone for a favor or their help, they’re more likely to be responsive to a friendly relationship. So that’s what we’re doing and hopefully after this Adachi will be more willing to join us.” Yu explained.

“But do we even want this guy to join us?” Chie asked.

“Are you still mad about his shadow calling you a bitch?” Yosuke asked. “You of all people know shadows are just the worse a person has to offer. But it doesn’t define them.”

“One: His shadow called me a ‘miserable little tomboy bitch’. And two: It’s not just his shadow, it was his whole dungeon. That crazy talent show? It was so creepy and disturbing. Maybe Adachi isn’t the kinda guy we need on our team.”

“We need all the help we can get. The killer is getting more rash and desperate.” Yu explained.

“To kidnap Naoto and then Adachi, two of the lead investigators on the case, within the span of 48 hours, was bold. They might have been trying to put us in a position where we couldn’t get them both in time. And we almost weren’t able to.”

“Yeah, his shadow was already in its attack form when we got there. The fact that Adachi wasn’t killed yet, was lucky.” Yosuke said.

“We aren’t really in a position to be turning down any help we can get. Besides, I think that Adachi could be a good friend to have.” Yu said with a little smile.

“Well, I guess you’re right.” Chie agreed. 

“And even if doesn’t agree right then, we still get some help with our studies. So a positive either way.” Yosuke said.

The trio finally made it to Adachi’s house. They stood outside for a moment, feeling hesitant. The whole sky was grey with clouds. The forecast said it might rain tonight. Even more of a reason to get Adachi to join their team. Yu rang the door bell and waited for a response. 

"Coming!" Adachi's voice came through the door. He opened it a cautious manner. 

“Huh, only three of you.” Adachi said ushering the teenagers into his home.

“Did you guys get ditched or something? I guess it doesn’t matter. The less of you there are the less of a mess you guys can make.”

The interior of the house was stark and cold. Blanched and bleached. Nothing about it seemed homey or even lived in. The group was surprised a slob like Adachi would live in such a sterile feeling place. There was kitchenette beside the front door, it looked completely unused. Not a single a dish in it's sink, which was next to small fridge that was probably baron. 

The living room was white with a grey couch and a tiny end table. A TV stand with a large flat screen TV sat across from the couch and the end table.

“Man, I’ve been in hospital rooms more inviting than this.” Yosuke mumbled under his breath. 

They all took a seat on the floor around the end table, while Adachi sat on his couch. The table had ring marks that suspiciously looked like the bottoms of beer cans.

“Alright let’s lay some ground rules. I’m going to be reviewing some case files, so please don’t get too loud and only disturb me with a question if you have exhausted every other possibility. It’s currently 4 o’clock, you guys need to be out of here and on your way home before dark. And finally, nothing is to leave my fridge. If any food or beer is missing from that fridge when guys leave, I will use my full authority as a detective to track down who took it. Do we have an understanding?”

“Yes, Adachi-san.” They said in unison. Yu noticed the file on the couch. It had a picture of Saki Konishi and Ms Yamino sticking from the top.

“Good! Now you kids should get to it. You only have about 2 hours till sunset.” He warned. Adachi then turned his attention to the manila file sitting next to him the couch.

“Alright, the next thing to study is geography.” Yu said. 

“How far have you guys gotten in the practice test? I’m on question 22.” Chie said.

“I’ve just been skipping around.” Yosuke admitted. He and Yu flipped though the packet to the question.

“Let’s see. ‘what is the longest mountain range in the Americas?’” Yu read the question out loud.

“Oh, that’s easy! It’s the Rocky Mountains.” Yosuke replied.

“Wow, not even 5 minutes in and you’re already getting the wrong answers.” Adachi said from the couch. 

“Huh? What are you talking about? The longest mountain range in America is the Rocky Mountains.” Yosuke protested.

“Yeah, I remember learning that in class.” Chie added.

“It seems right to me.” Yu said. 

“And you kids are trying to catch a murderer?” He grumbled. Adachi let out a sigh, rolled his eyes, shut the case file and slid off the couch.

“Alright you’re right. The longest range in the United States of America is the Rocky Mountains.”

“Yeah that’s what I said.” Yosuke said in a slightly annoyed tone.

“But that’s not what the question asked, smart ass. The question asked ‘what’s the largest range in the Americas’! Plural! That means not just the states, that means both North and South America. Then the answer changes. It’s the Andes, which also happens to be the longest above ground mountain range in the world.” He sneered.

“Americas? I just thought the ‘s’ was a typo.” Yosuke shrugged.

“Thanks for explaining that to us Adachi-san.” Yu said.

“Yeah, cool but can you help us with the other 88 questions?” Chie asked.

“If all the questions are that easy, it shouldn’t be hard as long as you kids keep up.” 

“Okay next question!” Yu said with a hopeful on his face. It was going great already.

The next hour, the four of them spent going over things Adachi would have sworn he’d forgotten, and that the kids were eager to memorize. They managed to finish geography in all of 20 minutes and then math in 40. 

It was just as they were solving the last equation, the soft patter of rain made itself heard over their talking.

The whole team looked up, panicked. 

“Oh, the rain. I heard it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. I hope you kids brought umbrellas.” He looked up and saw the scared expression on the teenager’s faces.

“I’m guessing that look means, you didn’t.”

“Adachi-San, have you had a chance to re consider the offer to join our team?” Yu asked suddenly. His tone was deathly serious. It took Adachi by surprise. 

“You kids are damn persistent.” Adachi said with a smirk. “As, a matter of fact I have.”

The kids waited with baited breath to hear his response.

“To be honest, I made it a while ago. I was still a little unsure about some things, but the short answer is, yes. I’m gonna join you kids on your investigation. Yu-kun was absolutely right. Going into the TV world alone is too dangerous. I have no choice but to work with people who have the same powers as me, even if they are kids.”

“You really mean it, Adachi-san?” Yu said with a smile.

“Of, course! I’m one of the lead investigators in this case. It would be reprehensible for me to turn a blind eye to this. Besides, if you kids need this much help studying for midterms, there’s no way you’re gonna catch a killer without help from a professional.” He winked.

“Thank god you said yes.” Chie exhaled. “Yu wasn’t gonna let us stop pestering you until you did.”

“Welcome to the team, Adachi-san. We’ll be sure to tell the others the news.” Yosuke said. A dull roar of thunder lightly rattled the windows.

“Oh, we should probably tell you about the midnight channel.” Yu said.

“Hm? You mean that rumor? How does it go again? Unplug your TV at midnight while it’s raining and you’ll see the person you’re gonna marry or something. I’ve heard people around the station talk about it. What does have to do with anything?”

“Well, it’s true. Not the ‘getting married’ part, though.” Chie said.

“But, people do appear on the TV at midnight during a rain storm.” Yosuke added.

“And the people who appear on the midnight channel are the ones the kidnapper takes. You appeared on it right after we rescued Naoto, and all the other victims did as well.” Yu finished.

The look on Adachi’s face was disbelief that was quickly replaced by tiredness. 

“Ugh, could this case get any stranger?” He sighed. “Is there anything else I should know about?”

“That’s all the weird stuff we know about so far. The other stuff you got to experience for yourself.” Yu said.

“Well, it’s definitely better than what I knew about these murders before. No matter how weird it is, it’s finally a step in the right direction. This case has been driving me to drink…more. Alright kids, with all that, I think it’s finally time to call it a night.” Adachi sighed.

“Yeah, we need to be headed home.” Yu admitted.

“Thanks for helping us study though. Maybe this time I actually have a chance!” Yosuke said getting up. Yu and Chie began gathering their things.

“Don’t get too excited, Yosuke. This is you, we’re talking about.” Chie retorted.

“Why do you always gotta bust my chops?” he sighed. 

“Come on, now no bickering.” Adachi lightly chastised. “I’m sure you’ll all do fine. You wouldn’t be going to Yasagami if you kids didn’t have some kind of potential.” 

The kids finished packing their things and started heading towards the door. Adachi followed them, watching them off.

“Alright man, we’ll talk to you later.” Yosuke said heading out the door.

“Don’t forget to check the midnight channel tonight.” Chie warned following him. Yu was the last one out. He lingered a moment.

“Thanks again, Adachi-san, for joining us.” He said.

“Please, it’s kinda my job. There’s really no need to thank me for doing what I’m supposed to.” 

“Yeah… but you could have decided to investigate on your own. We really do appreciate you agreeing to help us. And… Your shadow, it was wrong about you. You’re not talentless or worthless.” 

Adachi was surprised by the statement. 

“Yeah, shadows might be a reflection of yourself but not everything they say is true. They say it to get a rise out of you more than anything.” Yosuke said,

“And even if it is a little true, that’s just how you feel not how you are all the time.” Chie added.

“You kids, don’t have to say that. I got my persona, so I’ve come to terms with my shadow.” He assured.

“Yeah, we know. But shadows can really get under your skin even after you’ve beat them. A little re assurance now and then never hurt.” Yu shrugged.

“Heh.” Adachi smirked. 

“Well, you kids head on home then! I don’t need to worry about you all being kidnapped either.” He joked.

The kids all gave a final wave before walking off into the encroaching storm. There was a break in the rain at the moment permiting them to get home dry.

“Wow, you were right dude. That ask for help thing worked like a charm.” Yosuke complimented.

“And Adachi-san isn’t so bad when you get him loosened up. Maybe this could work after all.” Chie said.

“Yeah, I think we’ve got an unstoppable team now. There’s no way the murderer is going to be able to hide from us much longer.” Yu smiled. They all began to head their separate ways for the night, feeling more optimistic about the case than they had been in the past few weeks.

Later at midnight, after the rain had resumed, a flat screen tv sat unplugged on it’s tv stand. A staticy and blurred image flashed on when only a moment ago it had been pitch black. He could make out movement, a person, though nothing else, not yet anyway. He knew though, by the next time it rained he’d have a much clearer image of the next victim, his next victim.

His phone buzzed. It was the grey haired brat right on cue. 

“Yes, Yu-kun. I’m watching it right now. I can’t make heads or tales of anything on it though. Is that normal?” He feigned ignorance. Yu gave his brief explanation, speaking in order to make him understand, something he already was very aware of.

“Ah I see.” He acted enlightened by the teenagers words. “Well, I guess we’ll have to keep watching then.”   
Another annoying response from that brat. He couldn’t even be bothered to process it all. But he did manage to pick up the important things such as they’d be meeting a few days from now at Junes to go over all the facts they had thus far, to bring him up to speed.

“Right, I’ll be there! I’ll see you all soon.” He said faking a cheeriness that wasn’t there. The other line clicked and Adachi stood there with the most self satisfied grin on his face. He stood only being illuminated by the mysterious blurry figures on his television. 

“Well, kids, you wanted to be a part of your little detective team, and now you’ve got me. And I am going to make sure you all live just long enough to regret making that choice.” 

He couldn’t help but let out a crazed chuckle at how smoothly this had managed to go.

“The game is on! Let the real fun begin!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm writing this a bit differently than I've written other fanfics which should ensure on going updates. Basically I won't post a chapter until the next chapter is fully edited and the next chapter is a completed draft, meaning I'm technically two chapters ahead of the postings so yay! I'm glad you're all enjoying it so far!


	3. Debriefing the Dubious Detective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the joining of Tohru Adachi, the investigation team model 6.0 is ready to crack this case wide open! The team catches Adachi up to speed on all of the happenings of the midnight channel and try to figure out who the culprit's next target might be. But the most likely next victim is also the most impossible

The investigation team in (sans Rise who was running late) met at their usual section in the Junes food court after school. This had been the last day of exams and now that their minds weren’t crowded with test questions and fact blurbs, they could get back to the more serious matter at hand. 

While their last meeting had taken place on one of the dreariest days of the year, this day was crisp and clear with the signs of a beautiful Autumn. And they’re demeanor reflected this change in weather. They were all chattering a bit excitedly at the news Yu, Yosuke, and Chie had brought.

“So, Adachi is really joining our little investigation team?” Yukiko said astounded.

“My, this should make things a little easier. Given that Adachi is a lead detective.” Naoto said. 

“I’ve read his file. As laid back as he appears his actually an extremely knowledgeable and intelligent man.”

“You don’t have to tell us! The way he helped us with midterms a few nights ago, the guy is a real smart cookie. Even, Yosuke did better than normal. ” Chie added. 

“Can you rag on someone who’s not me for once?” Yosuke grumbled.

“Nope.” She replied.

“Are sure having a cop, on our team is a good idea, Senpai? I mean some of our investigating does call for less than legal acts.” Kanji asked.

“Well, I think he’s already kinda bending the rules to work on this case.” Yu said.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Kanji said.

“ I heard this from my uncle but, Adachi’s on a mandated extended leave of duty since he was kidnapped. Whenever he comes back to his job he’ll be removed from the case. But I think he already knew that.” Yu explained.

“What?” Chie snapped. “But we just saw him reviewing the case at his house.”

“Yeah, he’s probably not happy about being removed. He’s still investigating in secret, himself.”

“ Well, if he’s doing shady things himself that’s great. Then he won’t go blabbing all our secrets.” Kanji reasoned. 

“Your distrust of law enforcement is beyond concerning.” Naoto stated. 

“Eh, I can’t help it. As I see it cops are only capable of doing two things for this case: getting in the way or getting on my nerves!” 

“I’m very sorry you feel that way, Kanji-kun!” Adachi said. He’d managed once again to get the drop on the teenagers. 

“Adachi-san!” Yu, Yosuke, and Chie said in unison. The rest of the group stood in unsettled surprise. None of them had seen him coming. And considering that they were all sitting in a circle, this was very unsettling. He was in plain clothes now. Grey jeans and a dark red long sleeved shirt

“Bro, how do you keep sneaking up on us like that?” Yosuke asked.

“What? Don’t look so surprised! I’m a detective, part of the job description is being a bit sneaky at times. You kids could use a lesson in it to be honest. But I can teach you all kinds of tips and tricks of the trade later.”

Teddy couldn’t help but look wide eyed at the man before him. 

“Wow, Adachi-san! You’re already so cool!” he gushed. “If it’s not too much to ask, can I call you sensei too?”

Adachi gave an unsure look at the strange teenager before him. 

“Uh, ok.” He said with uncertainty. “Who are you again?” 

Adachi couldn’t place the name of the blond blue eyed kid looking starstruck in his direction. In fact he didn’t remember seeing him in the tv world though he did notice him hanging around the mystery bunch.

“Oh, I’m Teddy! Remember, I carried you out of the TV world.”

“Carried me… You mean that bear costume thing? I thought I hallucinated that.” He said. 

“Nope! I’m as real as they come!” he boasted. “Oh by the way!” Teddy dug into pants pocket to produce a pair of black glasses with red tented lenses.

“Ta-da! Since you’re officially apart of the team, you’re gonna need a pair of these! So you can see through all the static when you’re fighting grizzlies!” Adachi took the glasses from his hand. He put them on stunned they were such a perfect fit.

“Heh, I haven’t had to wear glasses since my last year in high school. So do you only wear the suit in the TV world or…” Adachi started.

“We can explain the mysteries of Teddy later.” Yu stated. “For now let’s get you up to speed on everything we know so far.” 

Adachi took a seat at the table.

“Alright kids, start from the top.” He ushered. 

The team started from the very beginning, with Yu discovering his powers, to finding their attentive listener in the TV days prior. They were eager to share their notes and theories and reasoning, not realizing what they were truly doing in sharing this information. Adachi took in every word with wide eyes and sincerity it seemed. Sympathetic to the plights each one of the faced in the TV world.

“Ah, I see now. After someone appears on TV then they’ll show up on the midnight channel, then they’ll be kidnapped. Wild stuff.” He said shaking his head.

“But, that means we are basically sitting on our hands till the next time it rains.” He reasoned. 

“Yeah, it does look that way, but we’ve been able to tell most of the time who the next victim is and warn them.” Yu said.

“Though actually catching the culprit in the act has been unsuccessful.” Naoto said. “Tell me, Adachi-san do you remember anything about your kidnapping?” 

“Yeah, only a little though. I was walking from the station. I’d just pulled double, up for nearly 24 hours straight. I was so tired I didn’t want to risk driving so I decided to walk home. I never thought for a second someone would snatch me away. I was barely keeping my eyes open to be honest, I nearly fell asleep while walking. So when the creep put that rag of chloroform around my mouth it didn’t take too many breaths before I was out cold. When I woke up, I was on the other side.” He recalled.

“Hm, I see. Any deductions you’d like to add.” She offered.

“Well, me being on TV a few days prior was a fluke. Dojima-san was supposed to do the press conference but at the last minute I got roped into doing it. Apparently the higher ups thought I was more ‘TV friendly’ . But that was a very last minute change, I wonder if the channel was always showing me as the victim.” He said.

“Interesting, and a good point. I wish we would’ve checked but after we saved Naoto we were sure no one else would be kidnapped.” Yu admitted. 

“Ah, well I can’t blame you the killer was following a very strict pattern , you had no cause to check the channel again.” He shrugged. 

“The real question we should be asking right now though, has anyone else in Inaba appeared on TV recently?” Adachi said.  
The group sat in thought for a moment trying to remember the recent things they’ve seen lately. 

“Well…” Yosuke started. He then shook his head.

“No, it’s stupid. Nevermind!” 

Yu looked at Yosuke with concern.

“What is it? You can tell us.” Yu assured.

“Saki, there was an editorial report on her recently… It’s because her birthday would’ve been this week.”

Yu and Chie gave Yosuke a pitiful look, then shared concerned look with each other.

“Saki?” Adachi asked. “Oh, she was the second victim. That was a real shame. She was so young…” he said wistfully.

“But you know it can’t be her on the midnight channel, right. She’s already gone, Yosuke.” Yu said in a comforting tone. 

“I know, but… when the shadow came on the midnight channel, the shape and outline… It kinda reminded me of her…” he trailed off. Yosuke eyes looked as though a tear might fall at any moment. He shook off his sadness of quickly before the waterworks could really start. 

“But, you guys are right, it couldn’t be her.” 

“Well, I don’t think we have the luxury of dismissing anything anymore.” Naoto said.

“Yeah, you guys don’t know if the killer controls the midnight channel right? But it’s always someone who has appeared on tv. So that girl could show up on it, we just don’t know what the killer would do if she did.” Adachi said. 

“I’ll mention to my connections at the station to keep an eye out for her family.” Adachi said with resolve.

“Yeah, I’ll keep a look out for them too.” Naoto agreed.

“Well, I think we made good progress today.” Yu said with that warm smile. 

“Let’s call this meeting to a close until we get some more information on the case. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still a little beat from Mid-terms.” He sighed.

“Boy, you can say that again!” Chie said in a stretch.

“Well, any of you kids need a ride home?” Adachi offered.

“Sure, I’ll take you up on that offer. I’m too tired to walk back to my place.” Chie said.

“If you could drop me by the police station, I’d be greatful.” Naoto requested.

“I could use the ride back to the inn.” Yukiko added.

“Well, if all the ladies are riding back to with Adachi-Sensei you can count me in on that car ride!” Teddy chirped.

“Uh, bro, not to rain on your parade but, don’t have a shift in like 10 minutes?” Kanji asked. 

“Aw, darn you’re right. Kanji! Won’t you stay and keep me company? I get beary lonely when Yosuke isn’t working and you guys aren’t here.”

“Eh, why not. I’m not really doing anything.” Kanji agreed. 

“Hooray!” Teddy ran and gave Kanji a hug much to his displeasure. 

“Okay, bear but if you make this werid I’m leaving!” He snarled but Teddy wasn’t phased.

“Well, I guess we’re walking home huh?” Yu said to Yosuke. He didn’t respond at first. Yu traced his gaze into the empty distance. He had that look on his face again.

“Yosuke ?” He repeated. This time his words was enough was to break through.

“Hm? What did you say bro?” Yu shot Chie another glance. She picked up on it instantly.

As the girls began gathering up their things, Chie approached Yosuke.

“Hey, are you gonna be alright? I know it must be hard having Saki’s birthday pass this week and we still haven’t caught the guy who… did that to her.” She asked choosing her words carefully.

“I thought by now, we would have put this guy in jail, but he’s still out there walking around with out a care in the world proabably.I just wanna make him pay.” Yosuke sighed.

“And we will! We just have to keep at it. Look at what our team is now, Yosuke.” She motioned to everyone occupied in their own conversations. The two detectives, and the well composed inn keeper, the tough guy and the mysterious creature,the power house, the pop star, the prince, and their fearless leader all together working towards one goal.

“This guy doesn’t stand a chance anymore. It’s only a matter of time now.” She said with a warm smile.

“You’re right, Chie.” Yosuke said perking up a little.

“I know I am. Now stop looking so hopeless. It makes you look more pathetic than normal.” She winked.

“Alright, if that’s everyone let’s head to the car!” Adachi said trying to corale the girls together. 

“Hey mind if we stop and grab a bite?” Chie asked running up. 

“Under normal circumstances I’d say no. But I’m hungry too…” Adachi said. They all began to walk off into the distance chattering. Yu tapped Yosuke lightly on the back.

“Come on, let’s head home.” He offered. 

“ Yeah sure. I’ll see you at home Teddy.” He waved absently. The two started off, out of Junes. They walked in silence for a while. Yu knew forcing Yosuke to talk would only make him clam up more. Outside, a thin sheet of fog covered the streets.

“There are some mornings when I wake up and go to school or work, that I think Saki’s gonna be there. And then I get school or I’ll see you guys and remember that she’s not.” Yosuke said.

“It’s the worst thing, like how could I forget she’s gone.” 

“I don’t think you ‘forget’ she’s gone.” Yu started.

“You miss her so much your brain convinces you that she’s still there. You’re still grieving.”

“You’re probably right. But what if that is her on the channel? What could we do? Did you see the weather report?”

“Yeah, it won’t rain until tomorrow night. We’ll just have to till then to see.” They’d come to the point in there walking where it was time to go their separate ways.

“Yosuke, are you sure you’re gonna be okay? If you’re not feeling great you can over to my place for a bit. I could cook something.”

“Nah, bro. You look beat. I don’t wanna force you to hang you’re exhausted. I’ll be fine!” Yosuke waved off.

“Yeah, I am really tired. I don’t even feel like cooking for myself if I’m honest.” Yu said in a yawn.

“See man? You need to stop over extending yourself. Go home, get some rest, and if I need to talk to you, I’ll call or talk to you tomorrow.” He shrugged. Yu was reluctant but ultimately relented to Yosuke’s wishes. 

“Ok, but seriously if you want to talk about anything, just call me.” Yu smiled

“I will, I promise.” He assured. They gave each other one last wave and an exchange of “see you tomorrow”s before parting. Fog had started to settle around the edges of the town as Yosuke made his way home. He constantly glanced in the direction of the curling line of fog. He tried not to look , what he was seeing couldn’t be possible. But he could see _her_ there, ever since he brought it up at the meeting, when the fog slowly started encroaching upon them, he could see Saki just standing out of view in the mist. 

“I’m just imagining things.” He sighed. He knew one else could see her. He saw others look right where she was standing and not say a word, not even bat an eye.

“It’s all all in your head, Hanamura….All in your head…”

Back at Junes Teddy swept eagerly around a table that Kanji sat at. He was focused on knitting a lovely navy blue scarf, when Rise came running up.

“I’m here!” she announced cheerfully. A week of midterms had done a number on her beauty routines. So for the grand return of the investigation team back and better than ever, she had to make sure she looked just as great. So after school she went straight home, changed out of uniform, and did herself in a similar fashion as if she were going on stage. 

“Where is everyone?” she beamed excited to see the rest of her friends and her senpai.

“What?” Kanji scoffed. “You’re just now getting here?”

“Rise-chan, the meeting is over with. Everyone else went home.” Teddy explained. “But you do look beary nice today!”

“You gotta be joking!” she said stunned. “But I got all dressed up for this!”

“Yeah, and you took too long.” Kanji shrugged returning his attention to knitting. Rise began to fume with anger. She stomped up to Kanji and clutched his shoulders. He looked up startled.

“Don’t give me that tough guy crap! At least tell me what happened during the meeting.” 

“N-Not a lot really. The cop joined our group and we filled him in on the details. Then we ended the meeting.” He stuttered. She stared him down for a few more moments before letting out a sigh of disappointment. She sat down at the seat next to Kanji at the table.

“All this prep work, for nothing.” She whined.

“Well at least we got to see you Rise-chan! You can stay and hang with us!” Teddy offered. 

“I appreciate your outfit beary much.” He said with a wink. Rise stood up.

“Thanks Teddy, but I think I’ll just head back home.” She said. 

“I’ll catch you guys later.” She said walking off. 

“W-wait! Rise-chan!” Teddy said trying to chase after her.

“Shot down again.” Kanji said returning to his knitting

Later that evening, after Yosuke got home, after Adachi got done taking the girls to their destinations, after Teddy finished his shift and collasped is Yosuke’s closet, after Kanji dozed off still working on a scarf for the coming winter, after Naoto finished updating her case notes before turning off to sleep, after Yukiko tended to her last guest before calling it a night, after Rise took off her make up and mourned the cute outfit that wasn’t seen by all of her friends, after Chie set her alarm for 4 am and texted Adachi to do the same, After Adachi received Chie’s text, reluctantly did as she asked and turned in early, and after Yu who was too lazy to cook, ate red miso that was originally white miso, at 11:45 despite all forecasts predicting the contrary, _it rained._

It was one of those short night showers. Ones you have no clue that happened the morning after, if not for the dampness left behind. It would only last for thirty minutes, but that was more than enough time for it to happen. 

Yosuke had his tv unplugged at the behest of his father trying to save money on the energy bill. Yellow static clicked on to the set with a sinister hiss.It was a seemingly normal midnight channel broadcast until, _she_ came crawling out with a trail of fog to follow.

“Hana-chan…” she whispered. Her eyes burned with yellow fire as she crept toward the bed. Yosuke began to toss and turn.

“Wake up, Hana-chan…” she kept going closer and closer. 

“Yosuke…” she growled standing over his bed with dark intent. His eyes shot open, but it was far too late for him to do anything. Her hand pressed hard against his mouth, a pointless gesture. Yosuke was too terrified to breathe let alone scream. Shadows came flooding out of the Television slithering across the room, under Yosuke’s sheets and wrapping themselves around him coiling up his body till they took the place of Saki’s hand on his mouth.

Saki’s glowing yellow eyes held him in fear.

“It’s alright now, Yosuke. I’m here. I’m back.” She whispered. A deranged smile spread across her face. Yosuke was ripped from his bed by the shadows and dragged into the TV with Saki’s shadow following after. As they entered a crash of thunder shook the world around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 ends with a startling cliff hanger! What will happen to poor Hana-chan? You'll have to wait and see... 
> 
> This chapter is the longest one so far. I hope I didn't overwhelm you all. I'll try to keep them a bit shorter from now on
> 
> By the way if you're wondering how Adachi keeps sneaking up on the kids? He's using fog teleportation the douche


	4. Hanamura's Haunted Heart part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke's been kidnaped by something that looks like Saki and has every intent on end his life. Can the investigation team get to him in time? Or will Yosuke's heartbreak finally be his undoing?

In the middle of the night, Adachi found himself back up in the waking world. He stared at the ceiling for a while before he turned to look at the the digital clock by his bed. 

11:55 was the time, and he groaned in disgust.

“I only get four more hours of sleep after this.” He squinted at the clock. The positive about being "kidnapped" is that he did get a well deserved break from his job, but it seemed that entertaining these brats and their flights of fancy was going to be a full time job in itself. He laid in bed for a few minutes contemplating reasonable lies he could tell Chie to get out of their arrangement, found it was too troublesome, and decided just to buck up and deal.

It was just as his eyes were getting heavy and he began to drift back off to sleep that’s when he heard it. That crunching static that he knew all too well.

“What? But it’s not…” But it was. He heard it but it didn’t even occur to him. It was raining near midnight. Adachi sprung out of bed and rushed to his front room nearly tripping over his own legs. The screen depicted in silence a scene of a bed room with, a person sleeping soundly in their bed tossing occasionally. The TV in the room was on and a girl, dressed in a torn Yasogami high uniform, was walking towards the bed slowly but intently. When she made it to the bedside, the person’s eyes opened with terror. 

“What the hell…” he mumbled to himself. Normally he’d be seeing the next victim, but this was like something out of a horror movie. It was only when the black mass drug the terrified person out of the bed that Adachi recognized the lanky teenager and his attacker

“Yosuke-kun? And…oh. You’re back.” He rolled his eyes. With the crash of thunder the two disappeared into the TV and then Adachi’s screen went black. 

Adachi pondered his next move. 

“I can’t let the brat die this early on. But do I really feel like dealing with that bitch again? And then I have to wake the whole brat bergade. Hm…” He thought for a moment and came to a satisfying conclusion. 

“These kids are a huge pain in my ass. But it’ll be worth it to see the look on their faces…” 

Yosuke was in a familiar part of the TV world. The warped Konishi liquor store where he’d confronted his own shadow and where Saki had succumb to her’s. He’d gained his wits back but as he struggled to move his arms to try and summon his persona, he found that they were bound in something. As the glass bottles clinked together when ever he moved, he realized he was tied to a store shelf. Saki’s shadow sat across from him, staring not moving, just watching him with great focus, as though studying some beautiful piece of art.  
“Saki-Senpai…” He finally summoned the will to say. She didn’t stir at her name.

“What are you doing? Why are you here?” 

“I never left.” She responded coldly. Yosuke felt himself getting choked up.

“You-you didn’t?” he asked. 

“I’ve been here ever since…” she said drifting off.

“You’ve been here? All this time?” tears formed in his eyes. “ I knew it. I felt it. It never felt real. It never felt like you were gone.” 

“You brought me back.” She said standing up. “You…” she said approaching. She put a hand on his cheek. Yosuke felt his heart leap out of his chest.

“And my mother…” Her hand slid from his check down his neck. “And my father…” she placed her other hand on his shoulder. 

“And my brother…” Her face moved so intently close to his. 

“…You all brought me back and I’ll kill you all!” she growled. Her hands snapped around his throat. Yosuke gasped in shock getting rid of precious air he now so desperately needed.

“Why did you bring me back? Why didn’t you let me die!? You annoying little brat! I was finally happy! So happy to be dead! But you all brought me back!”she sneered. Her eyes burned with a raging yellow fire, as her hands choked the life out of Yosuke. He was starting to get dizzy.  
_Damn… No one knows I’m here. No one thought it would rain… I’m going to die here… She’s going to kill me…  
_ Yosuke resigned that those would be his final moments and his final thoughts. He let the tears that had been sitting perched in his eyes fall in mourning for his soon lost life. It all started going fuzzy as he began to black out, hopeless and defeated.

“Persona!” a voice called out. Saki released him and so did the shadows that bound him. He fell to his knees weak and in pain. He knew that voice. Despite all odds he’d come to save him.

“Y-Yu…” he mumbled. Yosuke blacked out.

Adachi’s “persona”, (which it was in the truest since of the word) Was a mime like jester in black in white who could mimic ally’s and opponents attacks with ease and under extreme cases even turn into other people’s persona’s with their full arsenal of attacks. It proved to be a very useful façade. 

The creature looked at Adachi with the same amount of hatred she’d stared down Yosuke with only a few moments earlier. It was very clear that this was not the girl he’d pushed into the TV those months back, though it did look like her. 

“Alright, whatever you are, I don’t know what you want with that kid and I don’t really care, but you’re not going to kill him. Not while I’m around.” He stated plainly. Shadows, that had previously been restraining Yosuke, charged at Adachi and his persona. 

“Mimipiero! Zio!” The mime persona unleashed an onslaught of lightning strikes against the shadow mass. It managed to split the mass in two, before another round of strikes destroyed one of the halves.

“Hm, is that all you got?

The “Saki” let out an inhuman screech at Adachi and his persona. It was unbearably loud. Adachi covered his ears in pain, flinching away from the noise. 

It took the opportunity to lunge at the detective at top speed tackling him to the ground. Adachi found the new pain of a concussed skull washing over his head to add to the pounding of his ears. She straddled his body snarling wildly.

“Oh man, if you’d been this eager before I might’ve-“

She squeezed his neck in her very powerful hands before he could finish that statement.

“Into… the kinky stuff…I see…” he choked out. He grabbed her hands trying to force them off his neck. Mimipiero was too busy dealing with shadows to help its alter self.

“Get off of him you freak!” A swift kick flew over Adachi’s head. The leg was as stiff as steel and swept over him with enough force to cause a breeze. Though it seemed like a direct hit to the girl, it did nothing. She'd moved just slightly out of the way of the full hit of the blow. Chie’s leg felt as though it only swung through a dense pocket of air. On a dime she re altered the position of the lifted leg to directly above Saki's head and came down like a hammer on a nail. This time it’s dead on. The girl aperated out of the way releasing Adachi’s throat. 

The detective reflexively took a deep breath of air that was then immediately knocked out of him in sputtering coughs, when Chie’s foot connected with his stomach.

“Shit! ” he coughed out in anguish. Adachi rolled over to his side curling up in a ball, wheezing from the joke that was his painful existence in this moment.

“Oh gosh! Adachi-san, are you alright?” Chie asked bending over the detective. He wanted to say a stream of horrible things that could never be taken back, but he had a plan to follow and she did get that thing off him before it crushed his windpipe.

“Comparatively, I’m better…” he wheezed choosing his words carefully. “A few inches lower and I’d be serious trouble though.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” 

“I was right… She was going to kill him tonight or at least try to. This isn’t the killer. ” 

“She’s disappeared somewhere. The others are on their way. I’m not sure how long they’ll be.” Chie reported.

Adachi getting his second, third, and fourth wind began to stand up. He looked around. They seemed to be completely alone now. Even the shadows that were attacking Adachi’s persona had vanished. Yosuke was still on the ground, out cold.

“Oh man, he’s looking awful.” Chie said. “We need to get him out of here, before what ever that is gets back.” 

“Yeah, you’re right.” They started toward Yosuke.

“Any clue what that thing might be, by the way? It looks like that Saki girl, but like if she were … “ he trailed off not wanting to say out loud this ridiculous notion.

“A ghost…” she finished for him. A shiver went up both their spines when she said it. It was too accurate to describe that thing though. It looked like Saki but it had a deadness in her eyes, her lips and finger tips were tinged with blue, and her movements were unnaturally stiff and weightless, as if there nothing keeping her held to this world. 

They got to were Yosuke rested on the ground. Adachi knelt down putting two fingers on the teenagers neck.

“He’s alive, but his pulse could be stronger. We need to get him out of here fast. I don’t think he’s going to be waking up anytime soon, though.” With that, they both came to the realization of a task neither of them really wanted to do at that moment as they stared at Yosuke who was wearing nothing but his boxers.

“Oh, great we have to carry him out…” she said out loud.

“Now don’t say it like that! I thought the great Chie Satonaka would welcome any kind of test of strength.” He teased lightly. He hoped goading her into fitness challenge would make her want to carry him the whole way.

“Hmph!” she huffed then a grin cracked across her face. 

“Well, I think this would be great weight training for you, Adachi-san!” He was taken a back at how this had backfired on him so quickly. 

“What?”

“Yeah ! It’ll be a great warm up for our training.” She said eagerly. 

“Speaking of which… Don’t you think in light of recent events, it might be best to push back our training to a another day? I mean I don’t think we’ll be able to get up at 4 am now.”

“I can see what you mean, it’s already 12:30 now. Tell you what, we both carry out Yosuke and we’ll both get a work out. That way we can skip the early morning session.” She bargained. There was no way he was getting out of this one. But the idea that they’d at least both be miserable carrying Yosuke out gave him solace.

“Alright, deal!” he agreed. 

“1...2...3!” Chie counted as they lifted the half naked teenager off the ground unison. They slung over their shoulders like a long piece of timber. Chie had his front half, with his head resting on her shoulder, and Adachi had somehow been stuck with the back half, with Yosuke’s toes hanging on his back.

“Okay, let’s get moving!” Chie said leading them towards the way out. 

It was going to be a long trek back the entrance of the TV world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is so long I had to split it into 3 parts so here's part one with part 2 coming soon, as always thanks for reading!


	5. Hanamura's Haunted Heart part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chie and Adachi try to escape from the TV world with Yosuke in tow, but something is hindering their escape will they ever leave from from the TV world or will the phantom make this world their final resting place

The sky swirled red and black over the mangled landscape of the tv world. An eerie stillness that wasn’t common to this world wrapped itself around the only three humans currently passing through the twisted world. Adachi, Chie and an unconscious Yosuke were trying to exit the world as fast as possible. With Yosuke out and Adachi’s lack of experience in this place, it was up to Chie to lead them to the way out, but even though she’d navigated this place so many times before, it seemed they never got any closer to the exit. 

“Something is wrong. We should have hit the exit a long time ago!” Chie said balancing Yosuke’s top half on her shoulders.

Adachi, who could teleport himself out (at the risk of blowing his cover), winced as he balanced Yosuke’s legs on his shoulder. His whole arm was still sore from earlier, thanks to the very girl who was leading them out of here. So it crossed his mind more than a few times while walking, to just ditch her and the Junes brat. But if he kept thinking on it, it was more likely that he’d actually do it, so tried to strike up a conversation to distract his thoughts.

“So, are ghosts a common occurrence with you guys?” Adachi asked.

“No… but thinking about it more, that thing isn’t a ghost or at least not in the literal sense anyway.” Chie started.

“I think it’s Saki’s shadow, what’s left of it. She was killed by her shadow, cause she couldn’t come to terms with it. So if you don’t defeat your shadow and it doesn’t become a persona, where does it go? It has to stay in the TV world right?” She reasoned. 

“Her shadow? Well, that makes since. If she didn’t defeat her shadow and it did her in. It would be probably still be lingering around here I suppose.”

“We never even thought something like this could happen…” she shivered. 

“I guess it’s back now because people are thinking about her huh? That’s how it works right? Show up on the TV then end up in here. It must’ve caused her shadow to re-surge or something.” He hypothesized. Never would he have thought that after all this time this girl would still be a problem, especially after he had personally taken care of her. It caused his skin to boil just a bit.

“You!” A trembling voice said. It echoed all around the two. In surprise, Adachi and Chie let Yosuke slip from their fingers. He fell to the ground with a hard bump.

“Oops.” They both said looking at Yosuke on the ground. The teenager let out a moan of pain. 

“Hey, I think he’s coming too!” Chie said. 

With their attention briefly diverted, hordes of shadows began to appear on all sides. The two immediately started to pull their cards in preparation. The air became chilled at an unnaturally fast rate.

“Yeah, and now she’s coming too.” Adachi said shivering. 

Saki appeared before them, obstructing their path as full-fledged vengeful spirit. Her eyes were totally burning yellow with no pupils to be seen. Her breath was visible even in the mist coated air of the TV world. Her limbs extended unnaturally, and her neck was twisted, broken and swollen. She started marching towards them. The ground froze with each step. 

“You two aren’t going anywhere!” she howled into the abyss. She stomped the ground sending a shock wave of ice spikes straight toward Chie and Adachi. 

“Gah!” Chie exclaimed. The two jumped to the opposite sides trying to avoid being impaled on an icicle. They jumped right into the clutches of the hordes of shadows, which started to surround them. Yosuke on the ground very narrowly missed getting run through.

“Crap! We fell right into her trap!” Adachi struggled against the shadows.

“Persona!” Adachi called.

“Tomoe!” Chie followed after. They were now embroiled in a battle with the shadow horde. With those two taken care of Saki focused her attention on Yosuke.

“What’s this thing’s deal?” Chie said trying to kick through the shadow mass.

The Saki spirit glided forward to where Yosuke was on the ground. She lifted him by his arm like a rag doll. He began to open his eyes. Yosuke found himself back face to face with Saki. Despite her malicious intent, she looked just the same as the last day he saw her alive. Vibrant eyes and a glaze of peach lip gloss on her lips.

“S-Saki, please! You don’t have to do this… You can come home…” he offered. 

“What are you talking about?” Chie said. “Yosuke, that thing can’t come back with us! Stop playing around and summon your persona!” 

“We all miss you! Please Saki please, just come back…” he pleaded. 

“Kid, that thing isn’t her!” Adachi reasoned. “It’s just something that looks like her! It’s trying to trick you.” 

“Hana-chan…” she whispered keeping him focused on her. “We can be together forever… I can make it so…” 

“Oh no, he’s falling for it!” Chie realized. “She’s gonna kill him if we can’t get to him in time.” 

“And at the rate these shadows are coming she just might do us in with him.” This had turned into a very bad situation. 

“If, we could take her out I bet these shadows would scatter. But any long range attack we use is gonna hit him too.” 

“Ironically, Yosuke-kun is in the perfect position to take her down. If we could snap him at of his trance he could end this.”

“Ugh, how can’t he see what she is?” Chie growled as she used Tomoe to smash a shadow into fog. “He must be blinded by grief or something.” 

Adachi looked back at the scene between Saki and Yosuke. She hadn’t tried anything yet, Yosuke was still trying to reason with her. They were hovering a few feet above the ground, it almost looked romantic. But that’s when he noticed it.

“He is blind.” He whispered in realization. 

“Huh? Really?” Chie questioned.

“He doesn’t have his glasses on, we do. So he can’t see that thing for what it is!” Chie looked over to Yosuke. 

“Oh man, you’re right.” She noticed. 

“I have an idea, but I need you to keep these shadows off of me for a second.” He instructed. 

“I got you covered! What are going to do?” 

“I’m going to give him a wakeup call. Mimipiero. Trap Saki and Yosuke in a box.” He commanded. The mime creature, being protected from the onslaught of shadows by Tomoe, glided over to the two. It put it’s hands up, as if pressing on a wall.

“You want to be with me right, Yosuke?” she asked. “I can make it so we’re together forever. Do you want that?”

Saki was too occupied keeping Yosuke in his subdued state that, she didn’t even acknowledge the clown persona’s movements. It continued this ritual until it had them caught in a imaginary box. 

“Is it almost done? Getting a bit overwhelmed here!” Chie asked.

“Almost, just hang in there Chie-chan. Now use the mirror of truth. Show us this enemy's weakness.” With a snap the persona changed the invisible box into a small impromptu room of mirrors. 

Yosuke blinked at the images being presented before him. The ghastly woman who was holding him up was most certainly not Saki senpai. It wasn’t even human.

“W-What’s happening? What’s going on?” He asked panicked. 

“Yosuke-kun! Listen, that thing is trying to trick you!” Adachi yelled taking advantage of Yosuke’s moment of clarity. 

“You’re in the TV world, and that thing is trying to kill you! You’ve gotta get away from her.” 

Yosuke looked again at the mirrors that surrounded them and then back to Saki, there’s no way that thing was her.

“No…” he whispered. “It can’t be…”

“What’s happening?” Chie said through strained breaths. She was reaching her limit, but she’d managed to cut the shadow hoard down to size with a few powerful attacks and sheer luck.

“I think it’s working!” Adachi reported.

The phantom Saki didn’t falter however. 

“They’re lying, Yosuke. They’re the ones trying to trick you.” The phantom turned to face the mirrors. She let another one of those deafening screeches and the mirrors shattered instantly, but she shards continued to levitate in the air. With a flick of her wrist she sent the shards flying towards Adachi, Chie and their personas. 

“Shit! Duck!” he called running from the attack. 

“Huh?” Chie looked from stomping the last shadow into fog. She saw the shards flying towards them at top speed. She dropped to ground just in time, but neither her or Adachi’s personas were so lucky. Even though their physical bodies didn’t catch the attack, they felt every shard as it shredded their personas to nothing. 

“Gah! It… hurts… to move.” Chie said trying to pick herself up off the ground. Her vision became shaky as she faded out of consciousness dropping to the ground in exhaustion. Adachi was also on the ground motionless, shell shocked, not to far from her.

The phantom Saki redirected her attention back to Yosuke.

“See, everything is fine, Hana-chan. Now I can make it so we’re together forever. You want that, right?”

“Y-yeah…” he agreed shakily. 

“Good… Let’s begin.” Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her face cracked wide with a deranged smile. She put both hands around his neck and began to strangle him again, this time with much more force. Yosuke was numb to it all as she choked the life out of him. A dazed smile appeared on his face as his oxygen deprived brain began to shut down as he lost consciousness once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things keep going wrong for these guys huh? Saki isn't playing around with these guys in the slightest!


	6. Hanamura's Haunted Heart part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end has come for Chie, Adachi, and Yosuke as the phantom Saki maintains the upper hand... who could possibly save them now? And Adachi gets invited to a special place...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow a lot happened between this chapter and the last. From finals to writing a script for my panel at Ikkicon. I'm glad to be back on track. Please leave a comment if you enjoyed. I really appreciate the feed back and I'll try to respond in a timely manner

_”My, are you really going to let yourself die here?”_ a voice echoed in the darkness. It was such a pleasant voice. A blue light seeped through his eye lids. Adachi tried to open his eyes.

 _“I hope not… You’ve managed to change your fate…If you survive… I’ll find you…I’ll show you… true power…”_   
His whole body began to twitch as he started to regain awareness.

 _“So, are you really going to die here?”_ she asked again. The blue light began to fade away. Adachi felt the hard ground of the TV world underneath him. He lifted his head to see that thing still choking the Hanamura kid. He was filled rage at the sight of that phantom girl.

 _No._ he thought. _You won’t kill him. You don’t get to kill him!_ Adachi began to stand back up. He walked to where Chie was laying and looked her over. The little tom boy bitch was out cold. Finally completely worn down from fighting. He had to give it to her, he didn’t expect her to be able to take out that horde. He’d have to stop under estimating her like that. She could be a real problem down the road.

“Perfect.” He growled. He looked up to see the two in their scene, narrowed his eyes at them, as he made the final decision. An arcana appeared before him as he prepared to summon his persona, his real persona. 

“Magatsu-Izanagi!” he roared crushing the card. That blood red persona appeared; ready to do Adachi’s biding. Though he shared a persona with that silver haired little brat, his version of Izanagi was so much stronger than any persona these kids could even dream of, let alone any of the ones they actually wielded. 

Adachi had decided, that this had gone on long enough. It was time to cut his losses on this little impromptu rescue mission, and just get rid of this annoying bitch and if that meant the Junes brat died with her, so be it. No one would be around to see it, and if they asked he’d say that thing killed him. But, as far as actually letting her kill him, never.

These annoying pathetic little no bodies, who had dared to interrupt his fun, were his to slaughter, at a time he saw most fit. They were to be the next victims of his game. The next time he got them all together in this world, he was going to pick them off. He wanted to revel in their as every foggy morning they’d wake up and find another one of their members dead, until only their leader was left But even if he lost one brat in the process, he’d still have the satisfaction of killing him himself. 

“Get rid of them!” he commanded darkly. In a flash Magatsu-Izanagi was lunging at the two, sword drawn and preparing to strike. The phantom Saki looked up, she was completely caught off guard by the sudden attack. She disappeared quickly dropping Yosuke before the blade could hit either one of them. 

“Oh no you don’t, you bitch! You’re not getting away that easily. Come out and face me! Come on! Don’t you want revenge? Come on now? I know you’re still mad right…” He goaded. She re appeared, hurling herself towards Adachi shrieking that angry shriek. He flinched away from it again as she hurdled toward him. 

“Heh. Gotcha.” He smirked. “Izanagi!” the persona appeared between him and the phantom sword still drawn. He lunged it at the phantom, which had no time to stop. There was a very clearly heard, “shink” as the sword ran through her. She was unmoving even as Izanagi pulled the sword from her body. 

The phantom sank to the ground on its knees. Its form began to distort and shift like a defeated shadow. Adachi approached it slowly and deliberately. It tried to crawl away from them. It was panicked and acted like a wounded animal trying a last ditch effort at escape.

“Listen…” he started. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s having to do stuff over. So how about this time, you stay dead.” He sneered at the phantom. Adachi turned away from the creature on the ground back to his persona.

“Get her out of my sight.” He motioned coldly. They glided past each other as Adachi went to see Yosuke. The persona loomed over the phantom. There was a fear in its eyes now as its demise was clear. Izanagi let out a ghastly wail and obliterated the phantom, while Adachi walked over to Yosuke. He knelt down, checking his pulse again. His persona, with it’s job finished disappeared.

“Heh. Still alive. This was your lucky day, brat. But don’t count on this luck to last. Not as long as I’m around.” A cough pulled him away from his gloating. He turned around to see that Chie had woken back up. She was limping towards them. Adachi was simply flabbergasted that she could even stand after that fight. But Chie knew better than to come into a fight unprepared. So, that revival bead she kept in her pockets for emergencies came in handy. 

“Is-is he alright?” she asked shakily. 

“I could ask you that same question.” Adachi said. Yosuke as if in response to her question, let out a moan. His eyes began to groggily open.

“Ugn. Chie…?” His eyes then drifted to the man standing over him. “Adachi-san?” He started to set up. He winced. 

“Hey, kid take it easy.” Adachi said. “You’ve been through a lot recently.” 

Yosuke blinked slowly, taking in his surroundings. It started coming back to him. 

“Saki, she came back and she brought me here, but… that wasn’t her was it?” He looked at the both of them covered in bruises. 

“I let that thing trick me…” he said with venom in his voice. “And you guys got hurt over it.” He rubbed his arm and looked down at the ground.

“How could I be so stupid? Of course that thing wasn’t her!” 

“Hey, hey don’t beat yourself up over it. To be fair that thing had pretty convincing trick going.” Chie said.

“It was playing off your emotions, you were _supposed to_ fall for it.” Adachi reasoned. Though still Yosuke was an idiot for being played so easily, in his eyes, he could still sympathize being spurned by a crush. 

“Where are the others?” Yosuke asked panicked. It had taken him a moment to realize the whole team wasn’t there. 

“They’re fine, I’m guessing. They’re just not _here_ yet. It is the middle of the night. Adachi-san saw you get pulled into the TV on the midnight channel and went in after you. He had a feeling that you might not make it till morning.” 

“You saved me? I don’t know what to say. Thank you.” He stared up at him almost weepy eyed. 

“Huh? Of course. We’re a part of the same team now. I’m sure the other kids would have done the same. Not a big deal .” Adachi shrugged. 

“You were so reluctant to join at first. I guess didn’t think… Whatever. Just thanks, man. You too, Chie.” Yosuke said with a smile.

“You owe me so much steak it’s not funny.” She chided lightly. The creepy air of the TV world was still restless and unsettling. 

“We should, get outta here.” Adachi suggested. He was not in any mood to fight anymore shadows or ghosts or whatever else might be lurking in the mist. 

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Chie agreed. 

“Ditto. All this has given me a killer headache.” Yosuke said rubbing the back of his head. “Ow!” he yelped when he touched the bump that had formed from Chie’s and and Adachi’s little slip up.

“Ha, ha yeah I bet.” Chie said letting out a nervous laugh.

“Yeah there’s no telling what that thing did.” Adachi said following her lead.

Chie and Yosuke had to lead Adachi back to the stack of televisions that permitted them entry and exit from the TV world. Yosuke leaned on the two of them for support the whole way, but it was better than having to carry him out.

“So, you didn’t come here?” Chie asked when they made it to the more familiar part of the TV world.

As soon as she and Yosuke caught sight of the black and yellow circular stripes, they breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nope… I came out very close to where Yosuke-kun was being held.” _A privilege of being the one this world prefers ._ He finished the thought in his head.

“Well, this is typically where we end up when we go through.” Yosuke explained. 

“Hey! Yosuke! Chie! Adachi-san!” A voice called. They turned around and saw Yu running with his sword in hand. His persona was hovering just behind him. 

“Hey! Narukami!” Yosuke yelled waving him over, much to Chie’s and Adachi’s discomfort.

“You guys are safe.” He said in an exhale. 

“Yeah, we’re okay.” Chie confirmed. “But what happened to you and the others?”

“It’s just me. I figured with you and Adachi we’d be able to take care of any problem together. But when I got here, I got turned around. I didn’t come out at our usual place so I was totally lost. What happened to you guys?” he asked.

“We got attacked by a homicidal ghost.” Adachi responded. 

“Yeah, it was pretty touch and go, but Adachi-san saved us.” Chie said. 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” Yosuke said. Yu gave Adachi a look. It was almost the same as Yosuke gave him only a few moments ago, just a bit more reserved. 

“Thank you, Adachi, for keeping them safe.” He said with a warm smile. That smile that always seemed to be on his face. 

“Uh- You’re welcome.” Adachi finally said. It was almost genuine. A strange feeling of discomfort spread through Adachi’s chest. It was some sort of tingling burning like sensation. Adachi crunched up his face a bit at the feeling. Chie let out a sudden yawn. 

“Oh man I’m wiped! We can debrief about this tomorrow. Right now I need my bed…” They all began to make their way to stack of tvs. Yu took Yosuke on his shoulders in order to give Chie and Adachi a well-deserved rest. A slight air of relief came over the restlessness of the tv world as the four of them walked together under the strange stage lights.

“So definitely no training session tomorrow morning right?” Adachi asked. 

“Nope. We’ll have to start tomorrow afternoon.” She said with a sleepy wink.

“Ugh, are you serious? We’re both gonna be sore tomorrow and you still wanna train?” 

“You know what they say. No pain, no gain, Adachi-san.” 

“Oh, you’re training with Chie?” Yu asked. 

“Uh, yeah she’s helping me with a thing coming up.” He admitted. 

“Good luck surviving her training regime.” Yosuke tossed out the comment.

“I think the word you’re looking for is regimen.” Yu corrected.

“Nope. When you’re training with or under Chie, she rules with an iron fist.” Yosuke said weakly shaking his fist in the air.

“That is true. She can be brutal when it comes to getting in shape.” Yu winced with the memories of training with Chie by the riverbed. Then again if he hadn’t trained with her he doubted that he’d be able to carry Yosuke’s weight right now.

“Hey, stop talking about me like I’m not here!” she barked. Chie then looked at Adachi. 

“Don’t mind them, I might be a bit determined, but I do get results. Besides, it’s not like I’m gonna kill you.” She shrugged.

When they came to the TVs they were all hesitant to jump in not sure where’d they’d come out. 

“Do you think we’ll be back at Junes or…” Yosuke asked. 

“I don’t know. We all came through different TVs so, we might get split up.” Yu reasoned. 

“Well, no point in standing here and staring.” Chie said motioning to the TVs. The four shared hesitant glances for a moment, before jumping in. 

It was just as Yu predicted. They were split up, each of them through the TVs they’d entered in the real world. After a confusing few moments they all texted each other assuring they’d made to their homes safe and that they’d meet tomorrow afternoon at Junes to discuss what happened.  
Adachi looked at the time on his phone. It was a quarter to 2. 

“Ugh.” He sighed. The full weight of the battle was starting to hit him. He already felt the aching in his muscles from excreting himself so much. 

When he undressed and went back to his bedroom, too tired to shower, he collapsed on his bed, eyes closed before he even hit the pillow.

But not too long after he found himself awake again, laying down staring at the ceiling. But as he came out of his grogginess he realized, this wasn’t his ceiling. A mirror ball dangled over him, and what sounded like disco music was playing all around him.

“What the hell?” He said jolting upright. He was sitting on a hardwood floor in the middle of a large rectangular room with a high ceiling. The walls of the room were covered with large panes of mirrors, and the whole place was tinted an eerie blue that bordered on violet. In front of him stood a woman, with her back to him. She was wearing dark tights and a deep blue shirt, that had some sort of gold embroidery on it. 

“Well, this is an interesting development.” She said. Her voice was garbled and distorted. “Your fate has twisted in an interesting direction for you to be here.” 

“What?” Adachi said getting up. When he stood he could see the woman’s reflection. She was wearing a strange golden mask and only her glowing golden eyes could be seen.

“Who are you and Where am I?” Adachi accused. She turned her head slightly. He could see the mask more clearly, it was a lion’s face frozen in a roar. And when contrasted with her hair, a large wavy and poofed up mass of white, it looked like the beast’s mane. 

“Do not worry, you are still in your bed in the real world. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. Only those with a certain fate are allowed here. And your fate has changed granting you access to this place.”  
through the opened mouth of the mask Adachi could vaguely see the woman’s lips move as she talked. The disco music swelled into a vocal aria . “My fate?” Adachi asked. She turned around completely to face him.

“My name is Imana. Welcome, to the velvet room! I am the master here, and I will be your guide.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter! Chie's Training regime!


	7. Chie's Training Regime part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to loosing a bet, Adachi is now forced to train with Chie in preparation for an event happening at the Inaba police station but he'll soon find that Chie's brand of exercise is beyond brutal. Also the mysterious master of Adachi's velvet room introduce's herself and her dark designs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday Adachi! you son of a bitch...

Adachi’s heart was pounding out of his chest. Sweat came dripping from every pore as it tried in a vain attempt to return his body to homeostasis. Blinding light shone in his eyes, disorienting him even more. His chest tightened over his burning lungs unable to take in as much air as they needed to keep up this stress. He doubled over looking at the ground vision blurring.

“I… can’t believe this…” he said through breathes. “I never thought for a second it would be this difficult…” Then he heard it. The rapid footfalls the signaled his certain doom. But he couldn’t move. No matter how hard he tried his body just wouldn’t go forward.

“No…” Adachi whispered helplessly.

5 days ago, after Adachi had gotten formally introduced and inducted into the investigation team, he was driving some of the members back to their homes after a very informative meeting at Junes and ended up with nearly all the girls on the team. Chie sat shotgun, something she’d been quick to call, while Naoto and Yukiko sat in the back.

“So, where to first?” he said in a cheery tone.

“Well, Chie-senpai, would you mind if we stopped by the station first before grabbing something to eat? It’ll only take a minute.” Naoto asked.

“Sure, no problem!” Chie said waving her off. 

“Then, the police station it is.” He said turning the engine over. They pulled out of the Junes parking lot and headed towards their destination. After only a few minutes of silently driving the streets of Inaba, Yukiko spoke up.

“Chie, how was Yosuke? I saw you talk to him for a bit. I know this must be hard for him, with Saki’s birthday passing.” Yukiko asked.

“He’s trying to tough it out… but he’s still really messed up that we haven’t caught the killer yet.”

“Hm? Was Yosuke-kun, close to the deceased?” Adachi asked.

“Close? Eh, well on his end yeah. He had this huge crush on her, but she was always shooting him down. Brutally at that.” Chie explained.

“Yeah, but he still cared for her all the same. He was really depressed when she died.” Yukiko finished.

“Yosuke-senpai did seem really distracted after he mentioned her. I almost forgot how he felt about her. Do you think he’ll be alright?”

“He’s with Yu, so he should be fine. Yu’s better with that kinda stuff than I am.” Chie shrugged.

“Not to mention how close they are. Spending time with his ‘partner’, will surely perk him up.” Yukiko assured. 

“Here we are! Inaba police station!” Adachi announced. “Or as I like to call it, my home away from home.” He joked.

As they pulled into the station they were greeted with an odd sight. Men and women, in blue workout pants and white t-shirts were scattered in groups throughout the whole parking lot. Some were jogging, others did sit ups or pushups, some were even jumping rope.

“Huh, that’s odd.” Yukiko stated. “What’s going on, Adachi-san?”

“I don’t know.” He stated honestly as confused by the sight as the rest of them. “Are they... running drills?”

"Drills?" Yukiko asked.

“Training and exercise drills, senpai. Cops and detectives have to stay in pretty good shape.” Naoto explained briefly. 

“Yeah, but they never did in mass like this...” Adachi pulled into a parking space and put the car idle as he watched the sight. Naoto opened the door and hopped out. 

“I’ll be right back!” she assured again before closing the door and heading towards building.

“Adachi! Is that you?” a gruff voice called from the parking lot. Adachi instinctively flinched at the voice. He turned toward the direction of the voice.

“Dojima-san.” Adachi said in surprise. He sat up in attention.

He and his passengers looked up to see detective Dojima jogging over. He was wearing the same workout outfit as everyone else in the parking lot. 

“What are you doing here?” As he came close to the car and noticed its passengers an even more puzzled look came over his face. 

“Uh-“ he started.

“Adachi-san, here offered to drive us back home from Junes.” Chie interjected. “Y’know, to make sure we got back safe.” 

“Oh.” Dojima said understanding. “Was, Yu with you all?” 

“Yeah, but him and Yosuke wanted to hang out a little more so they’re walking home together.” Yukiko answered. Adachi was a little more than stunned at how quick these kids could come up with a lie and how smooth.

“Ah, I see. Well, how have you been? I know being on mandatory leave must be driving you stir crazy.” 

“Eh, it is a little. But I’m finding ways to occupy my time.” He shrugged. 

“Well, if you need something to do, I think you’re still allowed to compete in the station’s Olympics in two weeks.”

“The station Olympics?” Adachi asked. 

“Oh, yeah this is your first year here huh? Well, every year the station puts together a little athletic competition that everyone competes in. There’s a baseball game and an obstacle course and all other sorts of events. We typically have it in the summer but with everything that happened… Anyway, I don’t think your mandatory leave counts for functions like this, I think it do you a lot of good to compete. Let everyone at the station know your doing alright. You’d be on my team.” He offered.

“Oh, I’ll keep it in mind. Oh, hey, Dojima-san, if it’s not too much to ask, y’know the second victim’s family. I got a bad feeling, I’m a little worried about them, with it being their daughter’s birthday coming up. Maybe you could check on them?” He threw out the suggestion.

“Sure. I’ll check up on them.” Dojima nodded. “You just stop worrying about this whole mess for now.” 

“I’ll try…” Adachi gave a small smile to his partner. 

“Hey, Dojima-san! Quit socializing!” a female officer called. “If you don’t wanna lose again this year, you gotta cut the chatter and get to work!”

“Alright, I’m comin’!” He called back agitated. 

“I’ll see you around, Adachi. Hopefully at the station Olympics.” Dojima said. He jogged back to the other officers. He watched on as the group of officers all turned around to face the car while Dojima pointed towards it. Everyone’s face lit up with smiles as they all began waving at the car enthusiastically. It caught Adachi off guard. A blush began to form on his cheeks.

“Wow, they all seem really happy to see you Adachi-san.” Yukiko said. “Guess this really is your home away from home, huh.” 

“Yeah…” he said giving a tiny wave back.

 

“What!?” Chie yelled in stunned surprise. Adachi started to choke on a sip of water, startled by Chie’s sudden outburst at him, while Yukiko and Naoto watched on eating. The quotet sat at their usual booth at Aiya’s diner for lunch. 

“You’re really not gonna compete? You can’t be serious?” she continued.

“Uh, it just doesn’t seem like my type of thing y’know? I’ve never been that great at athletic stuff, plus it’s sort of last minute.” Adachi stammered trying to explain himself.

“I don’t even really have time to train.” he added. Chie seemed less than impressed with his excuses. 

“Psh, 2 weeks is plenty of time to train! I’ll even help you. Plus training for the station Olympics will only make you tougher when it’s time to fight shadows.” She reasoned.

“Chie-senpai is a pretty amazing athletic coach. Training with her might even give you a leg up on the completion.” Naoto said.

“That and Dojima-san really wanted you to be there.” Yukiko added.

“Huh? He did?” Adachi asked. “I think he was just being nice by inviting me.” 

“Don’t sell yourself so short, Adachi-san. I bet Dojima-san misses having you as his partner right now. From the way Yu tells it you guys are pretty good friends, right?” Yukiko said.

“I’ve heard a little chatter around the station. Dojima-san’s been sort of down since you got taken. He might even blame himself for it.” Naoto mentioned.

“Besides, Dojima-san was right. You, sitting around in your apartment all day focusing on the case isn’t healthy.” Chie said

“And you really think you can train me in two weeks?” he said giving her an incredulous look. He didn’t have to say it out loud for Chie to pick up on the reason for his disbelief. It was a look boys had been giving her all her life when they underestimated her strength because of her gender. But, because of her experience with it, she knew exactly how to deal with it.

“Fine. If you won’t listen to reason then, how about this: We arm wrestle.” Chie proposed. 

“Huh?” 

“It’s simple. If you win, I’ll leave you alone about competing in the station Olympics and I won’t bring it up again. But if I win, you _have_ to compete and I _have_ to train you.” She said setting her terms. Adachi didn’t have to think about it long. If it meant she stopped pestering him of course he’d play her little game.

“Alright, deal!” he said with a half chuckle and a shrug.

“Move your food guys.” Chie said in a serious tone. Yukiko didn’t hesitate, knowing what was coming.

“Senpai wait-“ Naoto said concerned.

“He’s made his choice!” she sneered at her. Naoto saw that look in her eyes and knew it was time to back off. All they could do now was watch a lesson be taught. Yukiko moved her plate of fried tofu as Chie set the elbow of her left arm on the table with a powerful bump. 

Adachi tried his best not to roll his eyes as he set his elbow on the table. Chie put her hand in his. It was actually sort large for a girl her age. But it was still a woman’s hand, soft, delicate and warm. Adachi’s long and pale fingers wrapped around her hand, and her’s wrapped around his. 

The narcissistic , misogynic, man that Adachi was at his core, could never fathom losing to a woman in any sort of physical challenge, let alone a 16 year old girl. No matter how tough she thought she was, she was still just a girl.

“Count us down, Naoto.” She commanded. Adachi still had a smirk lingering on his face. 

“Okay. Get ready…” she started pulling down the brim of hat. They stared each other down.

“Get set…” Chie gripped Adachi’s hand with all of her strength, and in that second Adachi started to realize he may have made a mistake. That last trace of a smirk had disappeared, crushed in Chie’s clutch.

Naoto let out a deep breath as she said “Go!” knowing full well what she sentenced Adachi to with those words. In fairness he sentenced himself to this. The match was quick though far from painless. 

Though it happened fast, the match could be split into 3 distinct phases that were denoted by three distinct sounds. The first thing that was heard was the loud “Pop” of Adachi’s arm as the little resistance it put up against Chie’s arm was easily and painfully overcome. The second thing, was the sharp gasp let out by Yukiko and Adachi as Chie proceed to slamming his arm so violently he was forced out of his seat to keep from breaking any bones. The last and most poignant was the bang on the table that signaled the end of the match and no question of who the victor was.

Adachi laid there, part of his body resting on the table with his arm fully extended. His eyes seemed to have rolled back into his head while Chie stood over him in a victorious fashion.

“We start training tomorrow at 5 am sharp!” she declared. “So I suggest after this you get a good night’s rest.” 

Chie picked up her bowl and sat back down at the table, continuing to eat. Yukiko and Naoto followed suit soon after, while Adachi remained catatonic on the table letting out a continuous groaning of agony.

 

After the incident with Yosuke-kun was resolved, and though training was a bit delayed, Adachi found himself throwing on a tank top and his hoodie the next afternoon, heading down to the flood plains, and doing push-ups, curls, jogging, and jumping jacks while Chie stood on watching, demanding he push harder, reach higher and run faster. The next few days followed the same theme of physical punishment with each day seeming more challenging than the day before. 

Now he was, doubled over letting out another shuttering cough. It was nearly the end of day 5 of this regime. Yosuke-kun had been absolutely accurate in how he described Chie’s brand of training. He didn’t have much time left now, he could hear the distinct sound of her foot steps on the dirt pounding away and getting closer. He lifted himself back upright. If Chie-kun caught him slacking like this she’d make him regret it, with a sparring match that he had no chance of winning. 

So he continued on, heart pounding, lungs burning, and on the verge of collapsing with sweat coming off of him like a waterfall. And as much as he would’ve loved to quit, as much as he would have enjoyed to snap at the little dyke and tell her to “fuck off!” with all the venom he could muster, two things kept him from doing so.  
One, was despite the fact that he was a narsasic misogynistic, murderous, sociopath he was also a man of his word. If anyone asked him about it he’d list it as his greatest flaw. He’d agreed to Chie’s terms and he lost so he was bound to this physical punishment until the station Olympics passed.

The other reason however was much more sinister and cruel. It fell more in line with his narcissism and all the other cruel little desires he held in his crooked little heart.

“Well ? Don’t just stare like that!” The professional voice that had given the whole introduction to the velvet room melted away into something much more sultry though still very distorted and deep. Imana walked towards him, with a distinct rhythm and swing in her very well formed hips, that synced in time with the strange operatic disco tune that played. In fact her whole body was shapely. It made Adachi really wonder what she was hiding under that lion’s mask.

“You are interesting.” Imana said circling him.

“You changed your fate, and you’ve managed to use the power of the wild card without permission. Which is very rude, but I’ll let it slide this time, cutie.” She winked. 

“Fate? Wild card? What are you talking about lady?” He questioned squinting at her.

“I am talking about you! See? This is what happens when go playing with things you don’t know how to use. We’ve got a ton of catching up to do! But before we get to any of that…”

Imana plopped down to the ground landing on that nice round tush of hers. She then offered Adachi to do the same. He did it much more slowly, folding his legs underneath himself and dropping to his knees. They sat directly across from each other, staring into each other’s eyes.

“Now, Tohru Adachi, tell me, what is it that you want to accomplish? Absolute chaos, total destruction, or smothering lies? What is it that you want?” Imana’s gaze became even more focused and intense looking deeper into Adachi’s eyes. Searching for something.

“What I want?” he asked. “I want, to finally make this world livable!” He snapped. “It’s so full of shit, so I want to cover this world in fog, so maybe people could actually get some enjoyment out of it.”

“Is that really what you want?” He could hear the arching eyebrow in her voice. The searching she was doing stopped, she found what she after.

“Yes.” He said definitively. Adachi expected the woman to reject him then. Certainly this wasn’t the answer she was looking for. But the woman let out a chuckle.

“How perfect! No wonder _she_ picked you. There’s so much midnight in your heart! So much fog! Enough to wrap up the whole world in! If that’s really what you want, you’re gonna need some serious power! And I, your new mistress of the velvet room, can get you that power! Power that’ll make you unstoppable.” Her voice trembled with ambition.

“Here.” She said waving a gloved hand over the ground in front of him. A contract appeared before him along with a pen.

“Sign this and we can begin the ground work for this plan. It’s nothing fancy or too complicated, just states whatever happens is totally on you.” 

She was right, the contract was short and to the point in that regard. Adachi picked up the pen, aiming it at the blank line.

“Ah, you’ve made an excellent choice.” Imana said watching him etch his name into the paper. He pulled back with a satisfied look on his face. 

“Now, this ‘unstoppable’ power you were talking about, how do we get it?” Adachi asked. Imana rolled up the contract and stuck down her bust, before answering Adachi’s question.

“It takes a bit of work, and it comes at a price. Should you not be able to pay that price when the time comes, the power will take you instead. And that won’t be pleasant.” She said matter of factly. Adachi’s face scrunched up a bit. This was something he would’ve liked to known before he signed that contract. Imana spoke again this time in a much lighter tone.

“Don’t worry though, the price may seem great now but by the time it comes due, you’ll be able to pay it easy I’m sure! Now let me give you the run down. This may take a while to get through but I’ll condense as much as I can. 

“Personas are not just a reflection of ourselves, they can also represent the relationships we have with other people. It is with the power of the wild card, you can wield multiple personas that represent the bonds you share with others. You have three personas currently. It seems you’ve already attained two persona’s as a results of bonds. Good for you, sweetie. Now the purpose of the velvet room is to help those with the power to use many personas, and to manage all those personas.”

Imana stood up and walked to the front of the room. She picked up a large book dusting it off, her eyes lingered for a moment, before returning to sit in front of Adachi again. She put the book in between them and opened it to a seemingly random spot. In between the pages were two tarot cards flipped on their backs. The design was blue with what appeared to be a black and white mask. In the center surrounded by a circle of triangles.

“What we want to focus on here, is fusing personas. You can fuse personas to make new stronger personas. So here’s our goal, you need to amass as many personas you can, so we can keep fusing them together making until you gain the power you need.” She instructed. 

“Bonds? You mean like making friends or something? I thought I was supposed to be getting stronger here? Not doing some sort of after school special.” Adachi sneered at her. Her gold eyes narrowed at him in response. 

“It doesn’t have to be a friendly relationship. Just some sort of connection between you and another person. I know this ‘ll be hard, especially considering what type of person you are, but if you make an effort, in no time the power to destroy the world will be yours. ” She promised. Imana paused for another moment. 

“Here, comes the next part you won’t like… The bonds you want focus on, are going to be from the other persona users.” She spat out quickly. 

“You mean those brats!?” 

“Hold on, hold on! Before you go getting worked up, If you get these kids bonds , it’ll strengthen you, and weaken them.” She explained.

Adachi still gave her a look of distrust, while her eyes looked to the book. 

“See, you’ve already started, with that Yosuke kid. Which is perfect! I know you can’t stand and want kill them but do me a favor and just keep them from figuring you out. We need them around for a while. ” 

Adachi let out a sigh of agitation. Imana simply continued.

“On the bright side, you can keep up your little death game, as long as it doesn’t interfere to much with our time table.

One of the cards began to levitate off the page.

“The jester arcana, useful!” she commented. Imana then looked to the other card on the page. Death, it was a bond formed long ago, Imana could see that much. It was strong enough to manifest a persona despite this person not being around currently. It was also a bit unstable, she’d worry about that later.

“This persona, this is the one you’re using to trick the kids right?”Imana asked pointing to the death card. He nodded.

“Right, I’ll leave it be for now. Now, we don’t have a lot of time to make this happen, so you need to get to work. The kids are your main targets for bonds, but of course you can make these connections with anyone, the more the merrier, after all. Hm, with our time table I may even need an assistant to help out around here.” She mumbled the last part to herself. 

She looked at him before reaching a gloved hand down into her bust. She pulled out a key from between her lovely mounds and place on the floor next to her compendium.

“That, is the contractor’s key, It’ll allow you access to the velvet room in the waking world. Feel free to come and visit anytime.” She said in that flirty tone.

Adachi gave her another strange look. This Imana as she called herself, was setting off a ton of red flags for the detective. From the mask, to her voice and her eagerness to help him execute his plan. There had to be something more to this.

“Why are you helping me with this?” he cocked his head sideways. Imana stared at him for a a moment, seemingly caught off guard be the question.

“Don’t be so dull…” she started her voice much more serious than had been over the length of their discussion. Her shinning golden eyes seem to go completely hollow. The shift was so seemless it actually unsettled Adachi

“You think you’re the only one the world has royally screwed over? I’ll spare you the sob story of poor little Imana, but just know I got cut down in my prime, just when I had it all …” Her first were clentched so tight it looked as though her hands would rip through her gloves. Through the strained cloth he could see what looked like the outline a ring on her right hand.

“So, If you want to cover this world in fog, then I can offer my services. Besides, you were picked by _her_ . I can’t just ignore that.” 

“Who’s this ‘her’ you keep talking about?” Adachi asked accusingly. 

“Oh, you don’t really need to worry about _her_. As long we stay on _her_ good side , we’ll be fine. Now get some rest! If I remember correctly you have a date with that Satonaka girl. She’s a strong arcana you don’t wanna miss out on!” 

Adachi felt as though the world around him was fading away into nothing. 

“Farewell for now, Adachi-san.” Imana said. The music drifted further and further away as the blue room disappeared completely and Adachi was left to the void of dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chie's training regime part 2 coming soon! Alternative title: Adachi gets fukin wrect. Please remember to comment if you can it helps me a lot to know what you liked or didn't!
> 
> If you're wondering what song is playing in Inama's velvet room it's this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaSSXcbS8YY


	8. Chie's Training Regime part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chie announnces the turning point in her and Adachi's training together and Adachi is left to dread exactly what that might be. As his patience is wearing thin, Imana promises a special incentive if he can manage to whether the ordeal a little longer, along with some cryptic advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a year and Adachi is still being reckt on his birthday...

Adachi carried the words of Imana with him as Chie ran him ragged, putting him through work out after work out. The promise of power was all that kept him moving, those past few days. 

After the run, Adachi finally felt safe enough to fall over, once Chie had called it for the day of course. His thin chest puffed up and down rapidly. His whole body was sticky with sweat and as he laid in the sunlight he gained a greasy shine. Though it was a cool fall day, Adachi’s body felt as though it would burst into flames from overheating. Chie watched him a moment before rolling her eyes and walking over to Adachi on the ground.

“I know, it’s a lot.” Chie said standing over him. He was too tired to even spare the energy to look up at her, let alone do it in anger with a sarcastic comment attached, like he wanted. 

“But, it’s just cause you’re starting out. After a week though, this doesn’t feel nearly as bad.” She assured.

“Kid…” he said through heavy breathes. He started to pick himself up off the ground. He couldn’t bring himself all the way back to his feet so he settled with sitting on the ground. At least he was upright.

“We’re already five days in. And it feels worse than day one. I’m not sure if I can keep this up.” He exclaimed.

“Don’t tell me, you’re trying to quit on me? We have an agreement.” A small look of disappointment rested on her face. 

“No, I’m not quitting.” He sighed finally able to stand up. As far as he knew he hadn’t yet obtained what he needed from Chie yet. Though he hadn’t heard anything from his new helper otherwise. So quitting wasn’t an option.

“I’m just exhausted. Your workouts are a real bear.” He said looking down at the teen. Chie’s face was only a bit flushed, and she wasn’t sweating nearly as much as he was.

“Yeah, I know. If you’re not use to how I train, it can really take you by surprise. But, you’re doing really good Adachi-san! You’ve improved a ton since day one. I bet, you’re really gonna rock at the station Olympics by the time we’re done.” She said excitedly. Adachi had nearly forgot about the whole point of their training in the first place. 

“Well, I think you’ll really get a kick out of tomorrow’s training!” Chie assured. “It’s one of my favorite routines.” 

Adachi cringed within himself at the thought. He could only imagine what horrifying acts of exercise made up Chie’s favorite routine.

“Sure... Can’t wait.” He said reluctantly. Before Adachi went home for the day, he’d made a mental note to stop by that strange blue door.

“Good! Tomorrow we start at the track behind Yasogami high at noon. Don’t eat anything before you come.” She instructed. Now Adachi knew he was in real trouble. It must’ve shown on his face.

“Ha! Yeah tomorrow’s going to be a real challenge. But I’m sure you’ll do great.” Chie said with smile. Adachi couldn’t help but wonder what method of torture Satonaka-chan had planned for him next and why she seemed so certain despite the performance she’d seen him give these past couple of days, that he could meet the challenge. 

_This goes past optimism into straight delusional fantasies._ He thought to himself

A shrill beeping noise cut through the air causing Adachi to jump slightly as he came out of his own thoughts. Chie looked pulled her phone from her pocket and flipped it open.

“Oh man! 5 o’clock already! I’ve gotta jet, I need to get started on homework. See you tomorrow Adachi-san!” she said tucking her phone away. 

Chie bolted off, waving behind her. Adachi gave a tiny wave back as he watched her off. 

_How can she even manage the energy to run after a workout like that? This girl is powerhouse._ In that thought he didn’t notice his mouth had pulled into a tiny smile. 

After the work out, Adachi made his way to the outskirts of the shopping district, to a tiny bar he had become well acquainted with since his arrival in Inaba. While he was very much in the mood for drink after the day’s challenge, he had other business to attend to.

Adachi stepped around to the side of the building where a strange, glowing disjointed blue door was located.  
I wonder if she put it here on purpose? He thought for a moment as he pulled out the key. Adachi had made a point of locating the door days prior, but this was his first time actually going in. Given that Imana had not contacted him in several days, this visit was more than warranted. 

Adachi approached the door cautiously. As soon as he reached out he found him back in that blue mirror room with the disco music playing in the back ground. The room was completely empty however. 

“Hello?” Adachi called. He waited for a reply. 

_“C-coming!”_ A voice finally said in reply. It took Adachi a moment to process that the phrase had been said in English with no distortion to be heard. It was just like the first time he heard her voice.

_“I mean…_ Coming!” the voice corrected it switching back to Japanese and back to being a garbled distorted mess. 

Footsteps came approaching rapidly while Adachi continued to wait for his attendant. The foot falls stopped for a moment before Imana finally emerged from the reflective pane of mirrors at the front of the room. She walked with a brisk confidence to the center of the room before once again taking a seat on the ground and offering Adachi to do the same. 

“So, how have you been?” She asked. 

“ _’How have I been?’_ ” Adachi repeated incredulously taking a seat across from her. 

“I’ve been through hell! That’s how I have been!” he snapped. “That little punk has been putting me through it! With push-ups and suicides and whatever the hell else she can think of! I’m exhausted all the time, everything is sore, and if I have to scrub another pit stain out of a t-shirt I’m gonna scream. I’ve actually started going through my packed boxes to find more stuff to wear.” 

“Aww, is wittle baby Adachi, getting his butt kicked?” she mocked. It only served to anger him more.

“Tough, cause I am literally juggling a mountain of other things to make sure this whole plan goes smoothly. So I don’t exactly have time to spare just to listen to you complain.” She explained with tiredness in her voice. Adachi glared at her, though Imana didn’t seem to care very much.

“You’re half way there with the Chie girl, alright…” she reported with a sigh. 

“But you still got some ways to go.” Adachi folded his arms in a huff. Imana however knew how get this spoiled brat to do as she pleased.

“Listen, After you finish bonding with her I’ll give you a special treat. A new victim!” 

Adachi’s face turned from anger to surprise. 

“What?” 

“Yes, someone is going to get thrown in the TV again, and the TV world is going to react a bit differently than you remember. Oh, but I shouldn’t spoil the surprise. Just know there’s a really good chance the next victim won’t survive.” She winked. 

“Huh, you mean it?” Adachi asked. 

“And the best part, you get a front row seat in watching the kids completely botch the rescue. But, you have to make a bond with Chie first! No fun till work is done. ” Imana said.

“Alright, alright. I’ll keep up with her for a bit longer.” Adachi sighed. 

“Good! I promise it’ll all be worth it in the end. In the meanwhile, you might see me in your world for a little bit in the next few days. I’ll be looking for an assistant to help with the work load I have around here.” 

“An assistant? How the hell are you gonna find an assistant for this place? Are you holding interviews or something? ‘Help wanted to destroy the world.’” He pitched mockingly. Imana gave him a strange look. A mix of tiredness and a sort of smile. 

“It’s good to know there’s not a reality where you _aren’t_ a smart ass. You don’t need to worry your pretty little head about how I get one. In fact the less you think about it the better.” She added. 

“If you say so. Ugh, I guess I better prepare myself for whatever torture Satonaka-chan is going to cook up for me.” 

“Perhaps a little insight will ease your mind.” Imana closed her eyes for a moment before speaking again. 

“It will be hard to get down but, you will have a come up… Also, be warned tomorrow your short sightedness may result in things being very unclear.” 

“Oh, and you do fortune telling! Of course you do fortune telling.” He said sarcastically. “Could you get anymore weird?” 

“You have no idea.” She chuckled. “Now, if that’s all you need…”

“Ah, I’ve worn out my welcome already then.” Adachi said standing up. 

“Sorry to rush you. So much to do, so little time, as they say.” Imana stood up as well picking up the compendium. 

“I have one more prediction for you before you go. It’s important, so remember it.” She warned. 

“I’m listening…” he said perking up. Imana locked eyes with Adachi.

“Midnight creeps slowly into hearts of those who need more than they get…” her voice dripped with intensity. Adachi however couldn’t take the message all that seriously with disco music barring in the back ground.

“Alright, yeah. I’ll keep that in mind.” He shrugged. Adachi went for the door at the back of the room.

“Until we meet again…” he heard her say as he opened the door and was flung back into the real world. The transition was much more jarring than it was in sleep. He blinked several times as his eyes tried to re adjust to the brightness of the remaining sunlight of the day. 

Adachi was more than ready to head home and relax for the night. He started down the street through the shopping district, back towards his house. He passed by the window of the Konishi liquor store as he went and caught his reflection. Adachi smirked at himself before continuing on his way. 

When Adachi finally made it back to his place it was nearly completely dark and he was completely wiped. The only thing the detective had on his mind for the evening was to take a nice hot shower and slide himself under his sheets for the night. But as he came closer to his house, he noticed someone standing at his door. 

Adachi moved his hand instinctively to his waist before realizing, his fire arm wouldn’t be at its usual spot. But he was unfazed by his missing weapon, instead he lowered his posture and soften his footsteps as he went closer to the stranger.  
The lack of light from the fading sun made it hard for him to see exactly who was. Adachi inched ever closer trying to get the drop on the intruder, but as he came near he could finally see the true identity of his uninvited guest. Knowing who they were however didn’t make them anymore welcome at Adachi’s front door.

“Yu-kun?” Adachi called. The silver haired teenager jumped, obviously startled, and turned around. He was holding those same plastic Tupperware boxes again. Adachi slowly walked up to him, not really wanting to deal with this at the end of his day.

“Adachi-san, I didn’t even hear you come up! Chie told me about your work out today, and I figured after something like that you might not feel like cooking.” Yu said passing the boxes to Adachi. 

“Oh, thanks…” Adachi said with a hollow tone. As he took them the detective noticed they were much lighter than they normally were. 

“Is there a left over shortage at your house or something?” He asked not sure why he bothered.

“Well, you’re on day five of training with Chie right? You’re gonna want to try and not keep a lot on your stomach for day six.” Yu warned.   
He looked passed Adachi with a painful expression on his face. Adachi’s mild concerned was now building into a panic. If this part of the training could even shake the un-shakable Yu Narukami, he didn’t have a chance. 

“Thanks.” He said shakily. Yu put a hand on Adachi’s shoulder. 

“Good luck.” Yu said with a grave tone. He turned away from Adachi and stalked off into the night, while the detective watched on confused and worried. 

“What have I gotten myself into here?” he shuddered. Adachi entered his home with his bags in tow. 

 

The velvet room was already empty by the time Adachi had managed to to fall asleep. He hadn’t realized how completely unsettling this room was when Imana was here blarring that music. But now with her gone and the music replaced with total silence, he could see just how unnatural this place seemed.The mirrors that made up the rooms walls were unusually clear. It was more like looking into another world rather than looking at his own reflection. On the mirror in the front of the room, there was a piece of paper taped to it’s surface with kanji sloppily scrawled across it.

More out of boredom than curiosity Adachi went to the front mirror to see exactly what the note explained about Imana’s absence.

“I’m off to find an assistant.” The note started. “You’re own your own till I get back,so try not to do anything too ridiculous to get yourself in trouble. But in case of emergency you should be able to locate me in your world. I won’t be far…”

Adachi let go of the note allowing it to fall back to it’s place on the mirror’s surface. 

“She didn’t even say how long she might be gone for.” He snorted at the note. “And her hand writing is terrible.” 

Adachi looked around the room one more time before sighing.

“Guess this place isn’t going to be any good to me for a while. No sense in hanging around then.” Adachi turned around and started out of the room heading back to sleep. 

“Monster…” a voice hissed. Adachii whipped around to catch who said that. 

But there was nothing, just the note on the mirror and his own reflection glaring back at him. Adachi walked back to the front mirror, recalling something he’d seen earlier. When he came close enough he reached his hand out to the glass, only to have his finger tips collide with their own reflection. He placed his whole hand on the mirror’s surface, expecting it would sinking into the glass, the same way it did when he came in contact with a television. But, nothing happened. 

“This place is too freaky.” He said turning from the mirror. “I won’t be making too many stops by here while Imana’s out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for no updates for a year! Please know there was never I time I wasn't working on this story, but It's been through a lot of tweaks and changes to get it where I was okay posting again. Also my need to be a few chapters ahead of posting tended to hamper things as I'd run out of ideas for the next chapter and go back to tweaking a mostly finished chapter. 
> 
> I am going to try and stay much more consistent with updates from now on and if you want to contact me see how things are going, or just give me a much needed pep talk and kick in the pants you can message me on my tumblr right here: ( http://sinclairslick.tumblr.com/ask )
> 
> So happy birthday again Adachi! Here' to writing more in the coming months!


	9. Chie's Training Regime part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adachi has a rough start to his day as he is about to enter the next major test of Chie's training. Meanwhile the mysterious Imana stalks Marie in order to force her into becoming her new assistant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead! but I bet this fic updating was everyone's... last surprise

The early morning was quiet. The sun’s light had not even started to trickle through the countryside. Imana let out a breathe looking over Inaba in the dim morning.

“Man, this place never ceases to look absolutely boring up close. There should be some sort of, ‘keep Inaba beautiful’ committee or something.” She proposed to no one.

Her eyes scanned the landscape over and over. The attendant had perched herself in a tree, so she could see the whole town.Though there wasn’t very much to see, at this hour. She was more so re-familiarizing herself with the lay out of the town. 

Adachi wasn’t aware but, She already had an assistant in mind. Now it was only the matter of catching them.

A gentle fall breeze brushed passed Imana’s face. It had been a while since the wind had touched her face. She had forgotten just how heavy that mask was until she took it off in favor of a more inconspicuous way of hiding her true self.

“Well, at least it’s peaceful. Or ‘at least it looks peaceful’ I should say. I know too damn well this place is a battlefield for the ages. Who would ever think this place, would be the crux of a battle for all of humanity.” She laughed in a hollow way. 

The sun was rising now, the light gently flooding over the town. She watched the people stir and ready themselves and their businesses for another day.

“Ah, I owe this town too much to be giving it this kinda criticism. I guess…. In that way this place is more than appropriate huh?”

A beam of golden sun hit Imana’s eyes and tear weld up and dripped down her face in reaction.

“Ugh, I can wax poetic about these things later… I’ve gotta get my new assistant before, Adachi screws something up while I’m gone.” She said. 

She scanned the area one more time before focusing on one cluster of houses in particular.

“And, I know just where to start.” She said with a snap of her fingers. 

The sun continued it’s arc slowly into the sky as the morning continued. As it passed the tree where Imana had hidden herself, it illuminated broken branches and bark stripped away from where she’d made her decent down the tree.

Noon came too quickly for Adachi that day. He woke up at around 8 am to find that every part of his body was sore and too stiff to move. It was something he was made fully aware of when he attempted to roll himself out of bed to scrounge up some coffee for the day, and found as soon as his leg hit the floor it wasn’t able to carry even half of his weight. So he was swiftly alarmed out of his half sleep state when he made a hard fall on the ground.

“Uuuugh.” He blubbered into the floor, too stiff to bring himself to a standing position. 

Adachi laid there on the ground for a full thirty minutes before making another attempt to move.   
This time he could pull himself up but everything was throbbing in pain. He pulled himself together and made the aching journey to the bathroom to wash up for the day. The world was still blurry as Adachi flicked the switch and dark undefined shapes became harshly bright undefined shapes.

He went to the sink and turned on the hot water, letting the steam flow up into his face in a very half assed attempt to wake himself without washing his face. He blinked slowly, reaching for a contact case on the sink’s counter. Adachi fidgeted with the tiny plastic case finding it too stuck to open.

“Come on damn it.” He grumbled. Adachi kept fighting with the container twisting it’s caps to no avail.

“Shit!” Adachi threw the plastic case hard into the counter. It finally opened spilling his contacts into the sink. Adachi watched stunned as the plastic ovals floated down the drain. 

He sighed rubbing a hand down his face. Adachi opened the drawer beneath the sink and began rummaging around.

“Come on. I know I have another box in here.” He grumbled. 

But the longer Adachi searched the more he realized that he wasn’t going to turn up what he was looking for. He squinted again. Trying to focus on objects just within his field of view, trying to make them clear.

“Ung!” Adachi grabbed the side of his head in pain.

“Damn it. There’s no way I can do this without contacts. But I can’t afford to slack off now…” 

A thought of how to remedy his problem came to his mind but, he loathed it. Adachi could almost hear Imana’s voice yelling at him to suck it up and finish.   
The detective let out a sigh before trudging off to a hall closet stuffed with boxes left unpacked since his move to the country earlier that year.  
Adachi looked the tower of boxes up and down and then said to himself, “I guess I better start digging…”

He spent the rest of the morning pulling boxes out of the closet and haphazardly going through their contents, forgoing his cup of coffee thinking it wouldn’t take long to find a pair of glasses. As the hours went on and he put aside another box of disappointment, and seeing that he still had over half of the closet left to go through, he came to terms that maybe coffee wasn’t a possibility this morning.

At around 11:42 after going through almost every box in his possession, with only three to spare, Adachi found his old glasses. He placed them on and while they weren’t as crystal clear as his contacts, they were much clearer than his blurred vision with no aids at all. When he finally caught sight of the time,he was throwing on his work out clothes in haste and rushing out of the door  
.  
About half way between his house and Yasogami, Adachi realized he had been jogging the whole time. But he wasn’t nearly as winded or tired, like when he usually tried running. He made it to Yasogami right on time, rounding the back of the school right as the clock struck 12. The track field however was totally empty. 

“Huh?” Adachi slowed to a light jog as he made it to the center of the track.

“Where is that kid? She’s normally so punctual about this excising thing…” 

The familiar sound of footsteps pounding against the pavement behind him, drew his attention.

Chie came running up, “Hey! Sorry I’m late! I totally overslept! Must’ve forgot to set my alarm or something.” She noticed Adachi’s glasses and had to stifle a chuckle.

“Don’t laugh!” Adachi snapped defensively. “I’m out of contacts and I had to do something. I’m near sighted so things would have been very blurry and unclear.”

As he said it, Adachi realized the words he had repeated.

 _“Damn her…”_ he thought _“She was being literal…”_

“Are you sure those bifocals won’t fall off your face while we’re working out today?” Chie teased  
.  
“I jogged all the way over here and they stayed on, so I think I should be fine as long as we don’t do anything too ridiculous.”

“Well, what I have planned for later is going to be a bit ridiculous but, your glasses will stay on for sure. For now let’s start running, then we’ll move up from there.” She ordered.

Imana loved being right, it made things so much easier. She had been lurking around the Dojima’s residence for the later part of the morning. Their routine was very familiar to her and she watched it play out perfectly.

Dojima leaves, Nanoko brings in the clothes, Yu will help. Yosuke isn’t at work, he’ll call wanting to hang out. He’ll bring Teddy to play with Nanako, squaring away those two. Yu will want to invite someone else though. Someone new…

She stalked the pair until she arrived. The girl with no memories, hiding out in the velvet room… Marie.

“Bingo.” She said a wide smile creeping across her face. Her eyes were glowing with anticipation.

Marie had not really wanted to be disturbed today, she’d been having a bad feeling about things as they stood with the investigation team, with the recent involvement of Adachi. Something felt very wrong about the whole situation, and as much as she tried to warn Yu about it, he seemed to think everything was fine. The nose and Margaret didn’t seem to be phased either.

“So, what do you guys have planned to do today?” she asked with a rather uninterested tone of voice.

“I was thinking the three of us could just hang out for a bit. Grab some lunch, go shopping at Junes. A new movie came out on home release that I want to see.” Yu offered.

“Dude, do we have to go to Junes today? Not that I don’t appreciate your patronage or anything, but I think I spend more time there, than I do my own house!” Yosuke sighed.

Marie let a tiny smile pull at her lips.

“I could always go in and get it for you guys, if you want. I know how it feels to be stuck in one place for a long time.”

“Really? You’d run in and grab it for us? Thanks Marie.” Yosuke said with a smile.

“I mean, of course you’re gonna give me the money to pay for it. And write down the title for me so I don’t grab the wrong one.” She said.

“Of, course.” Sighed Yu as he rummaged in his pockets to grab the cash he had with him.  
Imana watched as the three of them started off towards Junes. That smile on her face had gotten even wider.

“They are making this way too easy…” she chuckled.

 

“Hey, kid, are you taking it easy on me today or something? Is it the glasses?” Adachi asked in the middle of crunch. 

He had hardly broken a sweat since training had begun. On top of that, by now he’d usually be worn down and tired, but he felt as though he had energy to spare.

“Nope! You’re doing the same amount of work we always do.” Chie smiled.

“Hm…” he didn’t say anymore after that. About mid way through the workout, a light mist of rain started to fall, but it was a welcome cool down for Adachi and Chie.

“Finally.” Chie mumbled under her breath. As they finish their set of push ups, Chie hopped to her feet.

“Alright! Now we’re going to run to Aiya’s! On the double, Adachi-san!” She commanded. 

The tone of voice she spoke in let Adachi know he had to spring back up to his feet as fast as possible.

He popped up, and the two wasted no time as they started running from the flood plane’s through town. Adachi felt his heartbeats sync up in time to his footsteps. Not the usual erratic beating it did whenever he exercised with Chie before. He was even keeping up with her while maintaining a comfortable pace for himself.

The two made it Aiya’s diner just in time. The rain was starting to die down when they entered, but as long there was a faint drizzle, Chie’s plan could still be enacted.

She made her way to the lunch counter and took a seat, and Adachi followed suit, notably confused about what was going to happen next.

“You’re not gonna challenge me to another arm wrestling match are you? I don’t think my bones could take it.” He said rubbing his arm nervously.

Before she could answer, the waitress came up to the both of them.

“Welcome to Aiya’s dinner. What can I get started for you both today?” she said in that disinterested tone.

Chie was quick to answer, “We need two of your rainy day specials, please!”

Despite everything, Yosuke still ended up inside the lobby of Junes, because of the rain. But he refused to take a single step any deeper than he had to.

“ ‘The Fight of the Wondering Lioness’? Man this movie sounds ridiculous. Are you sure this is the one you want me to get?” Marie asked incredulously.

“Yes, the special edition.” Yu specified.

“Alright.” She shrugged pocketing the money. “I’ll be right back. Then we can grab something to eat after.”

Marie went to the elevators pressing the up button. She had to wait only moment before the doors slid open and she stepped inside. Once she got to her floor, it was a very short walk to the home video section of entertainment. 

The DVD aisle was notably empty except for a single woman. Or at least they appeared to be a woman. They wore a hell of a get up, a blue trench coat with a large brimmed hat, complete with gloves, sun glasses, and a surgical mask.  
She was holding a DVD in her hands, reading the cover closely. She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow, putting the case back on the shelf.

Does everybody in this town have to be so strange? She thought as she walked passed the woman, who didn’t seem to notice her.

Marie went to the section marked “action films” to begin her search. She didn’t get started long before she heard a sharp gasp.

“Is this!? Could it really be!?” The woman at the end of the aisle exclaimed.

Marie looked up at the woman. Her hands were shaking as she clutched a brightly colored DVD case in her hands.

“It is! I can’t believe it! I finally found it! After all this time searching! I’ve found, ‘Tokyo Dance Party Express’! With the original host, The Dynamite Disco Diva: Pattie Springer!”

The woman was spinning around and laughing hysterically. She stopped suddenly, when she realized Marie was staring at her sort of dumbfounded. The woman blinked slowly.

“Oh my. Have you been here this whole time?” The woman asked sheepishly.

Marie wasn’t sure how she should answer, and her delay made the woman shrink back even more.  
“You were! You saw all of that! Oh gosh this is so embarrassing! It’s not enough that I’m wearing this outfit, but you saw me make a complete fool of myself.”

“No, no it’s alright!” Marie started to feel bad for judging the woman earlier. “You were just excited to find your… What was it?”

The woman’s eyes lit up.

“Well, it a copy of this old show that came on in the 70s. ‘Tokyo Dance Party Express’. It was the Japanese version of a very popular American music dance show. They even had one of the original dancers from the American version, host this version. Pattie Springer. It exposed disco and R&B music to the masses here in Japan. Oh but look at me rambling on! You don’t want to hear about some old disco show! I’ll just be going. Sorry to startle you!”

The lady bowed and quickly hurried past Marie out of the DVD aisle.

“What an odd woman…” she mumbled to herself. Marie then went back to searching for the DVD in question.

“Here ya go.” The waitress said sitting out two massive bowls of what appeared to just be meat.

“Thanks it looks great!” Chie said with an eager grin. Adachi shifted a bit in his seat eyeing the giant bowl.

“So, this is the legendary rainy day special?” He said with a gulp. “I’ve heard the guys at the station talk about this but I’ve never gotten one myself.”

“Prepare yourself Adachi-san. This is the ultimate test of endurance, strength, and perseverance!” Chie claimed.

“Am I supposed to try and finish all of this?” Adachi asked nervously.

“Yep!” she said. 

“This is the key moment in your training. If you can’t finish this, then there’s no hope for helping you. Your training with me will end. If you can finish it though it’s proof you’re ready for the next level.”

“Wait, are you serious!? You’re the one who forced me into this whole ‘training’ thing, and now you’re saying if I can’t finish this huge bowl of meat, _you’re_ gonna quit _on me_?” Adachi was incredulous.

“Well, all the training we’ve done up to this point should have made you ready to complete this challenge. If you Can’t beat it then that means you’re a lost cause, and there’s no point in continuing on. But no worries Adachi-san, you’ve been giving it your all out there. I’m sure you can defeat the mega beef bowl, no problem!” 

Adachi gazed back down at the huge bowl of meat before him. It seemed to glare back at him with malicious intent. He then looked back to Chie who watched him expectantly. Adachi sighed seeing no other option, if he wanted to complete his mission from Imana, getting through this bowl of meat was the only way.

He picked up his chopsticks and grit his teeth.

“Well, here goes!”

Marie’s search had lead her from the DVD aisle to the main part of the home entertainment section. Huge flat screen TVs made up the majority of the displays, though sprinkled among them were set ups for new releases of movies. Yu and Yosuke had failed to mention that the movie she was looking for had come out only a few days ago and so was scattered somewhere among the large TVs. Luckily a helpful Junes employee showed her exactly where it was.

“Finally.” She sighed. Marie walked to the check-out section of the store, ready to end this shopping trip and grab some food.

“Hello ma’am, did you find everything okay today?” the clerk asked taking the dvd from Marie.

“Yeah.” She replied blankly looking around. The clerk tried to scan the item but was instead with an error message. He frowned.

“Is something wrong?” Marie asked noticing the clerk’s expression.

“Oh, nothing ma’am my machine is just being a bit difficult today. Hold on one second, I’ll have to input your item manually.” He informed her with a smile.

A basket pulled in the line just behind Marie. It was being driven by the woman from before. She gained that sheepish look back in her eyes upon noticing who’d she’d gotten in line behind.

“Oh.” The woman started. “How funny we both ended up in the same line.”

“Yeah, what are the chances.” Marie said.

“Let me just apologize again for my behavior back there. It was so childish of me and it probably gave you quite a spook.” The woman said giving another small bow.  
“It’s alright. really! You have nothing to be sorry about.” Marie insisted. 

There was an awkward silence in between them for a few moments as the clerk fumbled with Marie’s purchase.

“Ah, finally got it!” the clerk said. 

He had just managed to finish ringing up Marie’s one and only item. Marie paid for the dvd and started off, but before she left, turned around and gave the woman behind her a smile and a wave. The woman was stunned for a moment but gave her a wave back, as the clerk began ringing up her items.

“Jeez, what took you so long?” Yu asked. He was sitting down on one of the tiny cushions by the elevator.

“You guys, didn’t give very good instructions!” she fumed. “It took me forever to find this damn movie.” Marie looked around  
.  
“Where’s Yosuke?” she asked.

“He had to go to the restroom, he was trying to hold it until we went somewhere to eat but you were inside so long he broke and ran in. He’ll be back in a little bit.” Yu explained.

“Ah, I see. Oh hey, I never got to ask. How’s it going with that detective guy since he joined your team? Is he useful or helpful?”

“Oh, Adachi-san? Yeah. I told you about how he helped us save Yosuke. He’s training with Chie right now.”

“I still have a strange feeling about him… I don’t know what it is but just keep an eye on him, while he’s with you guys.”

“I will, but I still think you’re being paranoid. Adachi-san’s a good person, and he wants to help us out.”

“Yeah whatever I still-“ Marie was interrupted by the ding of the elevator. Both of them looked up expecting it to be Yosuke, but was instead was meet with the sight of a woman in a long blue trench coat and a big floppy hat.

She was holding something in her hand and looking at it intently. Marie recognized the object instantly.

The woman looked up from the broken and ancient wooden comb in her hand to see Yu and Marie staring at her intently. 

“Um… Hello?” she said giving a tiny wave seemingly unsure.

“Where did you get that comb?” Marie demanded.

“I just found this on the floor on the elevator. I nearly tripped over it, hope I didn’t break it. Is it yours? Oh dear a tooth is missing isn’t it?” The woman offered it to Marie stepping out of the elevator.

She sat her bags on the ground and began rummaging around in her pockets.  
“Here, I’ll gladly pay to replace it.” She said pulling out her wallet.

“No, no. That’s not necessary at all. This old thing was already missing that tooth. I’m just shocked that I lost track of it like that.” Marie took the comb gently out of the stranger’s hand.

“Thank you finding it for me.” Marie said with a bow.

“You’re welcome. It must be fate that we keep running into each other like this. Well it’s time for me to get going. I’ve spent far too much time in this place and too much money.”

The stranger offered her hand to the girl, “It was nice meeting you…”

“Marie.” She answered taking the woman’s hand and shaking it.

“What a pretty name. Goodbye Marie, perhaps we’ll see each other again sometime.” With that the woman picked up her bags and walked out of Junes. 

“Man that was some get up she was wearing, so stylish. You think she’s a model?” Yu commented.

Marie turned to see that Yu was totally serious about his last comment.

“Remind me never to come to you for fashion advice…” she said tucking the comb away in her bag. She couldn’t believe she’d nearly lost such an important item.

The next elevator that came down, brought the person they were now waiting on. Yosuke looked a little surprised to see both Yu and Marie now standing in the lobby. Yu stood up from his seat.

“You must’ve really had to go. You were gone for a while.” Yu said.  
“Actually, I started looking around for Marie while I was up there. I didn’t know she was back already.” He shrugged.

“Well, since we’re all together again we can finally go eat some lunch. Mind if I cook today?” Yu offered.

“Sure! To be honest I was getting low on cash for the week, so a home cooked meal would be easier on the wallet.” Yosuke looked down at where Marie was standing. There was a single Junes bag left at her feet.

“Hey, what are you doing leaving our movie just laying on the ground like that? We just bought the thing, we don’t wanna scratch it!”

“Huh?” Marie looked down and saw the bag. 

She picked it up and saw a movie inside but it wasn’t the kung fu flick she’d just purchased. Marie darted out of Junes, hoping she could catch the woman in the blue trench coat, but as she stood on the sidewalk and looked around the immediate area, she saw no sign of her.

“Hey, why’d you run off like that? Is something wrong?” Yu said asked up behind her.

“That lady… she left one of her bags. We gotta find her, she left something important!” Marie pulled the DVD out of the bag. It had a bright yellow case with fuchsia bubble writing all over it.

“’Tokyo Dance Party Express?’” Yu said reading the DVD’s cover.

Adachi could not fathom how much meat he had managed to make himself scarf down, but by the noises his stomach was now making he assumed it was far pass his limit. When he dared to peek into his bowl to see how much was left, the sight disgusted him. He hadn’t even made it half of the way down. There was so much meat and his stomach only had so much space.

“Adachi-san, are you alright?” Chie asked noticing the thousand yard stare he was giving his bowl. He didn’t reply. His mind was lost to the meat dimension.

Chie waved a hand in front of his face trying to snap him out of his trance. Adachi slowly turned his head, looking over to her bowl. Chie was much further along than him and was managing with little strain on her part.

“Do you need to stop? It’s okay if you do.” She offered.   
The look she gave him infuriated him. The last thing Adachi needed from Chie right now was her pity. The rage of being looked down on seemed to overshadow any previous feelings of being full. 

The detective sat up straight squaring his shoulders, “Don’t worry about me, kid! I was just taking a breather.”

He picked up his chopsticks gripping them with a new fervor.

“I’m not going to stop till I beat the rainy day challenge!” He vowed. Adachi started back again , picking up a strip of beef and shoving it in his mouth, barely chewing and swallowing before greedily grabbing another, and then another.

He ignored the feeling of his stomach tightening as he continued head long into the challenge.Adachi through sheer determination managed to finish a little over half of his bowl.

“Hey, hey! you need to slow down!” Chie warned. “If you eat like that you’re gonna make yourself sick.”

As soon as she said it Adachi felt it, that churning in his gut. His skin began turn clammy as he bent over himself. His stomach let out groans of displeasure as Adachi continued to feel worse with each passing second. A hiccup escaped his lips, an omen of worse things to come.

“Oh no…” Chie said looking at the detective as he continued to grow more pale.

“You overdid it didn’t you?”

Adachi didn’t reply, he was afraid of what might come out of his mouth. Another hiccup jarred is body, and he could taste a familiar bitterness in the back of his throat.

“Oh god no…” he mumbled putting a hand over his mouth. Adachi stood up slowly. He didn’t want to jostle his stomach any more than possible, but even that small movement was just enough to cause the detective to lose it. 

In an instant he was running outside, trying to beat the contents trying to rise out of his stomach. Adachi only made it as far as the sidewalk however before he was doubled over and hunched.

It all came spilling out of his mouth with nearly unstoppable force. The taste was awful, and Adachi’s eye’s watered in reaction. He coughed and gagged as more just kept coming.  
Chie came outside to check on her most recent trainee and was rightfully disgusted at the site of him spewing his guts all over the pavement.  
She shook her head as Adachi continued to puke, “This is the crime scene with Miss Yamano all over again…” 

Marie was still holding the DVD case, looking it over again and again.

“Are you still staring at that DVD?” Yu asked looking up from the kung fu action currently unfolding on his screen.

Yosuke was absolutely entranced by the TV and didn’t bother to turn around. Nanako and Teddie were currently up in Yu’s room watching the newest “Loveline” special together. Which was perfect. The movie was very much not shy about being graphic with it’s violence.

“I just can’t believe I couldn’t find her… She was so excited about this show and I feel bad that she lost it.” Marie said.

“I told you to leave that thing at the Junes lost and found...” Yosuke said absently his eyes were locked on the screen.

“Yosuke might be right. She’ll never find it if you’re just holding on to it. At least if you bring back to Junes she might come back there to look for it.” Yu offered.

“I guess that’s true. Alright, I’ll go take this back to Junes.” Marie decided standing up. 

“What? Right now? But we’re in like the best part of the movie. The samurai is about reveal her true identity as the prince’s fiancée.” Yosuke said finally looking away from the TV.

“We’ll just pause it then, and we’ll head out. It’s not going anywhere.” Yu said.

Marie shook her head however, “You guys don’t have to come with me. This movie isn’t really my thing, so I was thinking about heading out anyways.”

“Oh, are you sure?”

“Yeah, It’ll be fine. It was fun hanging with you guys, I’ll catch you later.” Marie made her way to the door, she put her shoes back and hung her bag across her shoulder, tucking the DVD away inside of it.

Yu followed her to the door to watch her off.

The sun was getting well into its downward arc when Marie opened the door. A cool fall breeze, dragged leaves through the middle of the empty neighborhood street. Everything was still coated with a bit of moisture from the short shower. 

“It’s starting to get chilly.Sure you’re gonna be alright on your own?” Yu asked again.

“You know it’s kinda annoying when you keep asking like that.” Marie said flatly.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to keep pestering you.” Yu said with a partial chuckle. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“In the velvet room as always.” She said with a wave as she walked out of the door. Yu waved her off and watched her down the street till she was gone.

Marie started a B-line back to Junes, and made it to the store in pretty good time. The lost and found was on the first floor across from the registers but when she got in the elevator, something made her press the 2 button instead.

“She’s not going to be up there… Why am I even bothering…” she mumbled to herself, yet Marie’s effort to convince herself otherwise did not make her change course.

She continued to the electronics floor, and wandered back into the DVD aisle.

There were some teenage girls there, ogling the newest chick flick, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary.

“What was I even thinking…” she mumbled cutting through the aisle. “No more playing around. I’ll just drop thing off and-“

Marie saw her, it was just a quick glimpse but it felt like it happened in slow motion. That woman in the blue trench coat, she was on the other side of the home entertainment section. She disappeared behind another aisle before Marie could try and catch her attention. 

Without even realizing out Marie was sprinting across the store trying to catch up with the lady before she lost her. She ran just barely catching sight of her before losing it again. Just when Marie thought she’d finally caught up with her in the TV aisle, she disappeared from view again.

Marie stopped looking around at the big screens but seeing no sign of the lady.

“Am I going crazy here? I swore I saw her come this way…” Marie let her eyes sweep over the aisle again. But she was all by herself with no one else around.

“The way she was going there was no way she could’ve left back out without us passing each other, so where is…” A terrible realization struck her.  
Marie tensed up as she looked at the rows of big screen TVs that were on either side of her now. They all seemed perfectly normal, all playing some sort of local TV program, but Marie could feel something was off.

One TV right next to her briefly flickered with yellow static.

She tried not to panic, but her heart couldn’t help but race. Marie as calmly as she could started to walk out of the TV asiel, her eyes nervously darting between the flat screens that surrounded her. Now all their displays started to flicker with static, as she walked past them. That only made her quicken her pace  
.  
Fog began to flood from the screens as their screens were totally overcome with static, the whole was now enveloped in white mist as and Marie could no longer see the end.

“No!” she said panicked. Marie barreled ahead despite her visibility being totally nonexistent

. She ran and ran and ran, knowing she should have reached the end of the aisle long ago. But she kept moving, standing still in this fog was absolutely not any option.

Marie looked around frantically, for any sign of anything. But no matter what direction she looked, all she saw was the fog.

“This can’t be happening!”

Suddenly she collided with something solid. The impact knocked her backwards onto the ground. 

Marie looked to see what she could have possibly run into in the expanse of nothingness she was now trapped in, and was horrified to see the outline of a woman in a blue trench coat and a big floppy hat. The woman had her back to Marie and stood totally motionless as though she hadn’t even realized Marie’s presence yet.

A chuckle however, signified the opposite  
.  
“My, we just keep running into each other today don’t we…” she said in a sinister tone. Her voice was different now. Deep and distorted beyond recognition. The woman slowly turned her head to look at Marie. With her sunglasses off, there was no hiding those shining golden eyes that twinkled even more with excitement.

“Who are you…” Marie said trying to back away from the woman.

“It must be fate don’t you think? How we keep ending up together…” The woman continued ignoring Marie’s question.   
“Who are you?” Marie demanded this time.

“One could wonder what the cards have in store for the two of us. It must be something big…”

The fog around the two them began to clear revealing old and broken TV sets surrounding them on all sides.

The woman wagged a finger in the air, “Fate is one thing I never wonder about however. No, no, that’s something I control!” 

She turned around fully now most of her face was still obstructed by the surgical mask she wore, and the shadow cast from the wide brim hat.

Imana smiled wide. She had Marie right where she wanted her.She so loved being right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to start really ramping up in the plot. So planning out events to come is hard with trying to keep a consistent updating schedule. But I'm still here and determined to see this fic through. Thanks for all the support you've been giving me.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the original AU short I wrote if you want to read that   
> http://adachi-au.tumblr.com/post/124599986560/persona-4-au-where-adachi-is-kidnapped-instead-of#notes


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